A Random Journey
by kazikamikaze24
Summary: This is the rather unique tale of Reki, a slightly insane, unusual individual who was not only forced to start a Pokemon journey thanks to the blunder of a professor, but has been coming across the weirdest, abnormal Pokemon that shouldn't be on the Routes he has been using. Based upon Pokemon Randomized Emerald, rated T for swears, and possible future pairing for some kicks.
1. Day 1: Part 1

"Hello, professor Birch? Yes, this is Norman's wife, and I'm just calling to inform you that my son and I are about to reach our new house. You didn't know we had a son? I could have sworn my husband told you about him before we began preparations for moving to Littleroot Town. His name is Reki, and yes he is of legal age, why? Oh! I'm sure he would love the chance to get one from you! Yes yes, I'll send you his email through text in a bit."

_'I wonder if father ever found out about the affair mom has been having behind his back with this Birch guy...'_ Reki looked at his watch, hoping that they were getting close to their new house. It sucked riding in the back of the U-Haul, especially with it being filled to the brim with boxes that weren't even his. He didn't know as to why they were moving from their comfortable house in, well, it didn't matter anymore he supposed. All he knew was that, one moment he was sitting on a hard box, and the next he found himself lying on the floor, his chest sore from the harsh impact he couldn't prevent. He quickly stood up, looking away from the door as it was forced open by one of the Vigoroth that his father loaned them to help with the moving process and hurried inside the new house.

"Oh, Reki! The wonders of Pokemon and how they make life so much easier for us. Isn't it wonderful?" He wanted to say something along the lines of only the lazy people enjoy Pokemon for such trivial things, but he kept his mouth shut instead. She could cancel whatever she was having this Birch guy do for him, which was something he _didn't_ want to happen. Considering he holds the title of a professor, it most likely had to do with Pokemon or science, two of the most common trades in the world. "You should go check out your room upstairs and set the clock. Oh, and don't forget to turn on the new computer we bought for you!"

"Sure thing mom." Was the only reply he offered before heading up to his room. The "room" in question turned out to be the attic, giving him plenty of wall space to hang posters, rearrange the bed so he could watch TV or play some games from it, or even play with some of the basic stage Pokemon once he had a few. It was then that he noticed the gray desktop computer in the corner of the room, complete with a wifi router, keyboard, and a little wireless mouse, though where his mother found the time to buy it, he didn't know. It wasn't long before he got the internet up and running, something his mom usually had him do anyway, and noticed that he had a new email from some site called P.S.C., and took the time to read it, seeing as he had nothing better to do.

To put it in simple terms, the email was from the Pokemon Storage Company, telling him that he was now a member with full access to storing items, Pokemon, and letters through their service, all for free due to a sponsorship program. He also got a free Potion out of the membership too, which was nice, but utterly pointless until he caught himself a Pokemon. A sudden loud squeal caused him to hurry downstairs, looking around to see that not only were the Vigoroth were gone, but his mom was watching the TV from the table.

"Reki, come quick! Your father is on the news!" Sadly, by the time he reached the TV, the station cut the news feed for the interview, he assumed they were interviewing his father, and turned to mom. "Oh, you missed it. I know, you should introduce yourself to the neighbors! I heard that the one right next door has a girl just about your age. Don't do anything I wouldn't~"

_'Considering who you are mom, that isn't giving me a lot of options.'_ One quick trip to the computer to grab his free Potion later, he left the house, noticing something that he couldn't believe wasn't told to him. Of all the places to move to, why would my mother pick the one town that was still in the process of constructing homes? Literally, the only "neighbors" they had was what looked to be a storage facility and an actual house, though he had to question as to where the fat man in the blue shirt came from, considering he wore not a single piece of construction uniform like the others. With no place left to visit, he went to their neighbor's house, sighed at how both houses looked identical to each other, and knocked on the door.

"Hello, who are you?" The person who opened the door could easily be described as a trophy wife of some sort, being tall with nice brown hair, curvy with a bust that made her shirt look tighter than it should have been. It took all of his will not to stare at her jaw dropping breasts.

"I'm one of your new neighbors from the new house. My mother wanted me to visit, and said something about making a friend?" Well, those weren't her EXACT words, but this person would never know the truth, now would she? Either way, she smiled at him before moving to the side, allowing him inside the house.

"She should be up in her room, but I wouldn't know, seeing as I just got back from Oldale Town with groceries."

"Oh, uh, thank you?" It came out more like a question than an actual appreciation for the information, but the woman paid it no mind and went back to the table to organize her groceries. He went upstairs, noticing that the girl's room was actually the attic, but filled to the brim with facts and posters of different Pokemon from the region. He felt his foot tap on something as he walked around, took a moment to look down to see an unopened Pokeball on the ground, and picked it up. He could faintly see a Pokemon within the Pokeball, something blue if his eyes weren't failing him, and took a moment to consider his options.

To steal or not to steal, that is the question?

"Hey, my mom was right when she said that a boy was in my room. I thought she was joking..." Reki turned around to see the source of the voice, looking directly at a short girl with shoulder length brown hair tied behind a green bandana. Even with the thick jacket she wore, why she wore it during spring, he didn't know, he could tell that her bust was already something to be drooling for, even IF she sounded like a preteen. It was then that he realized that the current situation might have been awkward for the girl and chuckled as he extended his hand out.

"Hi. I'm Reki. My mother sent me over to introduce myself to the neighbors and your mom sent me up here to meet you." The girl shook her head at him. Did he say something wrong?

"I told my mom that I was going to help out my dad with some research today, but does she listen? NOOOO!" Parental issues aside, she shook his hand and grabbed the Pokeball he picked up moments ago. She smiled at the little device before putting it in her pocket. "You have NO idea as to how worried I was that I may have dropped this little guy somewhere on Route 101, so thank you for finding him for me!" Damn, then he could have gotten a free Pokemon without any worry about being caught red handed! He would have had to buy a new Pokeball, weaken it with a Pokemon before catching it in the new one, but seeing as she was the daughter to a professor, the Pokemon she had must have been special in some manner.

"No problem. I'll get out so you can return to your research."

"Wait!" He paused, glancing at the girl, who grabbed something off her bed before walking up to him. "Do you want to help me with the research? My father leaves me some assignments that I can't really figure out from time to time, so any help is appreciated." He nodded, soaking in the girl's happiness at the thought of having a new friend. In truth, he just wanted to know what kind of research she did with her father so he could know what he could get from them in the future, but she didn't have to know that. As they walked down the stairs, they saw her mom staring at the stairs, quickly focusing on her daughter before grabbing her by the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but I need to have a bit of a mother-daughter talk with little May here. She'll be out of here soon, so just wait outside for a bit please." Knowing the tone in her voice was one of gossip and awkward questions, a tone his own mom took to using all the time, quickly left the house and closed the door behind him, taking a moment to sigh. He began to walk towards his house, knowing that May could easily find him by going next door, when a sudden loud scream caught his attention.

_'Hm, I wonder who got their dick caught by a claw of death?'_ He noticed a very young girl, possibly six at the max, standing near the town's road and walked over to her. He, for a slight second, looked at the small sign that said Route 101 and imprinted the information in his mind before turning to the girl. "You know where that scream came from?"

"It came from in there. Could you go check it out? I don't have a Pokemon to help protect me." He considered the possibility of something dangerous attacking him thanks to her words, only to shake his head. Nothing that dangerous lurked in the early Routes from what his father told him, so he could easily kick any Pokemon away from him or the victim and call it a day.

"Sure, I'll go check it out." She thanked him as he walked down the route.

"...Dead man walking." He paused, turning at the girl, who had widen her eyes at him. Did she just say what he thought she just said?

"Did you say something?"

"I, uh, said that you shouldn't be walking! There is a life at stake here!" He nodded, walking a bit faster and didn't turn his head when he heard her speak again. "Heh, sucker." If she was around when he returned, she was seriously going to get a water balloon to the face, or some dirt thrown at her clothes as revenge. He blocked his thirst for payback when he heard the victim scream again, jogging towards the source and couldn't believe what he saw.

A tall, slightly chunky man with familiar shoulder length brown hair was running away from a Zigzagoon! A young Zigzagoon at that! It looked as if it wanted to _play_ with him rather than HURT a single bone in his body, so why in hell's name did the man scream as if his stomach was being torn to shreds? He watched as the Pokemon cornered the man, jumping up and down with its nose pressing closer and closer towards the man's groin, causing him to wonder just how the man found himself in this position in the first place. The man must have finally noticed him, as he pointed at the ground next to him, causing him to look down at the brown bag by his feet.

"Quick! Grab a Pokeball and call out the Pokemon!" Reki grabbed the bag and looked at the three Pokeballs within it. Since he didn't have a Pokedex, a complicated device that scanned all Pokemon, he had to play guess work with what he could see from the see through Pokeball. One of them was a Cubone, a Pokemon from the Kanto region, another being Houndour from Johto, and the final Pokemon was something he couldn't classify. Cubone naturally had a weapon with them, a boneclub, so it could do more damage, but the Zigzagoon was most likely faster than it, and the Houndour, despite being a puppy that could match it in speed and excel in terms of power, they were tough Pokemon to raise, and their loyalty had to be won. "Just pick one and call it out! Maybe the Treecko or Torchic to match this quick Pokemo-OUCH, MY BALLS!"

_'Treecko? Torchic? Doesn't this guy know what Pokemon he has on him?'_ Reki picked up the unknown Pokemon and released it, watching as it reformed in front of him. Its short form reached his knee, though its limbs were quite short, and had no claws or nails to do much damage with. That didn't mean that he didn't recognize the Pokemon once it fully formed, and couldn't stop the grin that formed on his face when it appeared. "Go, Bagon, attack with Bite!"

"Huh, a Bagon?!" The man shouted, watching as the small Dragon type ran towards the Zigzagoon and took a bite out of its back, making the poor Pokemon yelp before tackling it away. Despite being knocked back, the Bagon got up and began chewing on something. Wait, was that BLOOD dripping from its chin? After a few more Bites, the Zigzagoon couldn't take much more from losing plenty of skin and muscle from the deadly attack and ran away, most likely to try and survive its horrible injuries.

"Atta boy Bagon." Reki walked over to the man, who looked at the other Pokeballs and pulled out a Pokedex to scan them. He didn't understand as to why the man suddenly looked as if he shit his pants, but he couldn't keep his eyes off the Bagon he used, as if it was meant to be his to befriend.

"No, no, no! This isn't possible!" The man took the bag back and looked through it, moving things around relentlessly for several minutes, giving Reki enough time to pull out a napkin and wiped off the Zigzagoon blood from Bagon's chin. He was slightly surprised that it allowed him to touch it in the first place, considering Dragons were known to be hard Pokemon to win trust from, as well as took forever to raise to evolve. "These aren't the starter Pokemon I picked up from the Pokecenter! Oh, this will kill my career if anyone ever finds out about this! I have to-" The man paused, turning to him and looked at the Bagon and at him with an expression that could break solid stone to crumbs.

"...Is this the part where I run off to the nearest town and report you for theft, or is this where you register this Pokemon to my name and this little discovery never happened?"

"Follow me to my lab."

"You're walking ahead of me though, no exceptions. I'm not risking the chance to be stabbed in the back."

For obvious reasons, the walk back to the laboratory, the same building he thought was a storage facility, was a silent one. The only amusing event from the walk back to town was seeing the little girl drop her jaw at him not only surviving, but with a Bagon walking alongside him, who just so happened to spit some of the meat it bit from the Zigzagoon on her face. The inside of the building was cluttered with bookshelves and odd machines, stuff he wouldn't bother himself with while he was waiting for the man to find whatever he was looking for.

"I just can't seem to find the key to the lock. Oh, I know, why don't you find my daughter, May, who should have the spare I made? She should be around Route 103, and why don't you take that Bagon for extra protection? It seems to like you."

"Sure, I'll take MY Bagon and go find your daughter. Unless, of course, you want the world to know that you stole some Pokemon from the Pokecenter..."

"...Just get out of here." Reki went over to May's house, hoping that she was still having that mother-daughter talk so he wouldn't have to leave on a wild goose chase, only for his hopes to be crushed by her mom telling him she left about seven minutes ago, more than enough time to head through Route 101. So, with a groan and a small smile to his Bagon, the duo left Littleroot town in search of May.

-Author Note-

So, many of you are most likely wondering what the hell you just read, correct? Well, this is a challenge from a friend of mine who knew I loved playing altered and hacked Pokemon games, and told me about Pokemon Randomized Emerald, which basically allows you to alter the Pokemon Emerald rom file and can change the starters you are able to get, the item it holds when given to you, as well as allows you to change the random encounter pattern. I thought he wanted me to do a Nuzlocke at first, seeing at how popular those are, but he dislikes them when done in story mode, as you couldn't really believe what the writer did unless you watched the youtube video to mirror it, and figured I would have a different set of rules instead.

1: The starters can't be the basic three of any of the regions.

2: The dialogue between the characters should be different from the game counterpart.

3: Any Pokemon that are forced to faint, unless you haven't caught any, can't be used until you've gone to two cities. For example, if a Seedot faints outside of Oldale Town, you can't use it until you reach Rustboro.

4: All Pokemon must be nicknamed.

5: In the event of any final evolutions coming your way, give them a unique plot point for the story, whether you catch it or not is up to you, but it may be hard to come across in the future, so catch it while you can!

I wonder how much of this story I will actually write, as I am sure not everyone wants to read about Bagon fighting a bunch of wild Pokemon, and the trainers tend to be rather crappy opponents from the start of the game, so there is that too. Either way, expect another chapter sometime today, if not tomorrow, for this silly idea. Oh, and as usual, I don't own Pokemon or anything that pops up in this story.

Until next time, stay golden!


	2. Day 1: Part 2

_'Okay, this isn't normal.'_ Reki thought to himself as he walked out of Route 101 with his Bagon out of its Pokeball. The entire half hour walk through the Route was silent, not due to the happy cries his Pokemon let out as it munched on its Leftovers, but due to the lack of random Pokemon appearing to fight them. Sure, the Route was filled with nothing but baby Pokemon and all, but he was sure that something had to have the urge to fight them, right? Even with the lack of wild Pokemon, that didn't prevent him from keeping his eyes out for any unusual details that came his way, and he found one big oddity in Oldale Town.

"What are you doing near this site? Its blocked off for a reason you know!" The teenage boy looked like your typical nerd, wearing a white shirt with a pocket protector, greasy black hair with circular glasses on his face, and wore black dress pants to pair with his black shoes. All in all, he looked as if he would know _how_ to fight, but COULDN'T fight worth a damn penny for his life.

"No it isn't. You have two signs that say 'Please don't bother me. I'm busy.' Not exactly the easiest sign to decode the meaning 'blocked off' from, now is it?"

"Shu-Shut up." The boy pointed at the ground, emphasizing of its importance. To him, it was just a pile of mud with what looked to be some shoe prints in the mud. "What you are looking at is the first clue to what may very well be a new breed of Pokemon! Mud all over its feet, while leaving its footsteps in it is certainly the work of some unknown Pokemon. I just know it!"

"Or, and follow me now, or it could just be your foot prints in the mud from you walking in it."

"Whatever. Someone so barbaric wouldn't be able to understand my unique brain."

"Anyway, could you at least tell me if this is the way to Route 103 or not, oh smart one?" Sarcasm aside, he was decent enough to point north, and said that there was no way he could miss it unless he swam across the lake to the other side, which is connected to Route 110. Oldale Town was small, just about the size of Littleroot, with the exception that it had a Pokemon Center and a Pokemart, making it a much better place to live in his opinion. Maybe they would take out Route 101 and combine Oldale and Littleroot into one big town in the future?

The walk through Route 103 was just as uneventful as the last one, causing him to wonder if Pokemon naturally feared Dragon types as a whole, but forced the thought out of his mind as he found May crouched on the ground, looking at a Wurmple that was slowly crawling away from them. She wrote something down on the notepad in her hand, nodding her head as if agreeing with herself, though he wondered when would be the proper time to announce he was here.

"Okay, so the Pokemon located on this Route are...Oh, Reki!" Apparently, he didn't have to, as she realized he was behind her and quickly stood up to face him. She must have ignored his Bagon on the way up, as she didn't comment on his Pokemon in the slightest. "Hey, I see that my father gave you a Pokemon as a welcome to the neighborhood gift. So, you wanna battle to see what its like to be a trainer?"

"Sure." He had a general understanding of listening to Bagon for the past hour or so, even if it was to him eating on some Leftovers from the Zigzagoon, though how much of the stuff it had in its mouth, he couldn't tell. May's mystery Pokemon ended up being a Mudkip, a small, blue Pokemon on all fours that reminded him more of a puppy with fish fins than anything else. Going on the name alone, it must have either been a Water type or a Water/Ground type, considering it had "mud" in its name after all. "Come out and play Bagon!" The little pale blue Dragon walked in front of him, munching on something he didn't want to know, and noticed that May was looking at him in shock.

"Wow, my father must have seen something really special in you if he gave you such a rare Pokemon!" Oh, if only she knew what actually made the man give him this Pokemon, then she wouldn't showing stars in her eyes. Her shocked look changed into a determined one. "That doesn't mean I'll make this easy for you though! Mudkip, Growl!"

"Ignore the noise and go in for a Bite attack!" Reki shouted, feeling an incredible urge to kick May's Pokemon in annoyance if it continued to make that annoying noise.

"Dodge the attack and Tackle!" The Mudkip avoided getting seriously injured, though took a small amount of damage from the attack and slammed into Bagon's body, knocking him down. Reki didn't take his eyes off the little blue enemy for a single moment, knowing full well that getting distracted would do his Pokemon no good.

"Get up and go in for a Bite!" The little guy quickly got up and got a solid grip on the middle of Mudkip's body, making it scream in pain before running around, hoping to get the Dragon type Pokemon off it. He was sure that the attack did critical damage, considering Bagon's teeth, baby teeth or not, must have punctured several parts of its skin, if not an organ or two.

"Mudkip, Growl as loud as you can!" He was utterly surprised at it being able to release such a loud noise while in pain, causing him to wonder if this Pokemon would have been worth keeping if he would have actually taken it. He noticed that Bagon let go of the Mudkip, taking a few steps back in order to shake its head of the annoying noise that came from the Pokemon and glared. He realized if the Bagon had a particular attack he heard all Dragon babies had, and figured the best time to find out was now.

"Use Rage!"

"Mudkip!" The lack of order caused the Mudkip to pause, allowing the Dragon type to land a clear hit with its tiny arm. Though the lack of any notable damage was a downside, he noticed that the glare on Bagon's face seemed to intensify, possibly leading to more damage being done during the next use of the attack? "Growl again while going in for a Tackle!"

_'Is she nuts?!'_ It was hard to make a Pokemon do two attacks at once, seeing as not many Pokemon could separate their attention to such degree. Doing such things only promised pain for the Pokemon, and he was going to be the one to show it to her. "Knock it out with Rage Bagon!"

"Mud-KIIIIPPPP!" The first attack went through, making Bagon slow down for a moment before continuing forward, but the Mudkip didn't tense its body like many Pokemon would for a Tackle attack, and instead came head to head with Bagon's limb, earning a small scream as it laid on the ground. Bagon seemed to notice that the Mudkip could no longer battle and ceased its anger, returning to his side and watched May look at her Pokemon's body before pulling out her Pokeball and returned it.

"Wow, so that is the power of a Dragon huh?" May mumbled, causing him to look down at Bagon, who shook its head for some reason. Was that a blush on its face? He looked back up to see May walking towards him with a few slips of money in hand, though why she was trying to give him cash he didn't know. "Go on, take it. Its my way of rewarding you for our battle, though I need to drop by the Pokecenter to heal my Mudkip first, so why not look around Oldale Town while I take her in for a quick checkup?"

"Sure, I'm sure Bagon has a few wounds that should get healed as well, so I'll join you." May looked at him with slightly widened eyes, as if he did something wrong. She pulled out a hand sized gray bottle with a purple handle, making him recall the Potion that was in his computer.

"Don't you have a Potion or two? If not, go check out the Pokemart in Oldale when we get there, and I'll take your Bagon in for the Pokecenter for a quick cycle. They always give off a free sample for any new trainer!" The walk back to Oldale was uneventful, though he saw it as a blessing this time around as he didn't want to add any new injuries to Bagon, despite how it took next to no hits from the Mudkip. Then again, he always began to worry about things after he heard someone, may they be friend or strangers, complain or ponder about something of uncertainty, and hated that particular part of him.

May forced him to hand over his Pokeball as soon as they stepped into town, reminding him to go to the Pokemart to pick up a Potion or two before returning to the center, and nodded before watching her run off. He stood there, taking a moment to think about why she would wear black biker shorts if she was going to wear a large orange blazer that was one size too large to show off her assets before heading to the store for that free Potion. The Pokemart was rather small, reminding him of the quick stops in the big city due to the many products they had for the regular civilians, and noticed the trainer section of the store was walled off behind the counter.

He, sadly, found out that the only way he could buy the Pokeballs for cheap was if he had a registered Pokedex, as they signified that he was a research or of someone important to get the trainer discount, which was something he really needed. He wasn't going to pay $1000 for a single Pokeball, that was outrageous! He was fortunate to get that free Potion sample from them though, even if the person behind the counter was unsure to give it to him since he didn't have a Pokemon anywhere on his person. By the time he was done asking for the prices on the items within the store for those with a Pokedex, May was done healing their Pokemon and met him outside the store to head back to Littleroot town.

At least the way back to Littleroot was by them jumping over the ledges, preventing them from having to travel through the tall grass to meet any wild Pokemon. The little girl who led him to professor Birch was gone from her spot, not that the annoying runt mattered to him anyway, and hurried into the laboratory. Prof. Birch looked as if he was going to cry when he saw that we, or rather he returned for May to give him the spare key to unlock the safe that held the man's Pokedex supply. The man looked as if he would rather do anything else but give him the device, but the man held to his word and handed it to him with a fake smile.

"With this you'll be able to scan any Pokemon you capture, learning important information about their attacks, and be able to mark the territory of wild Pokemon so you'll know where you can catch them." May poked his shoulder and handed him five basic Pokeballs with an innocent smile.

"I hope you can catch as many Pokemon as I will! I enjoy making friends with Pokemon, and hope to have a large collection of them while traveling the region!" Unlike May, whose innocence level must have been over 9000 for her to ignore the intense annoyance her father was releasing, he wasn't blind to it, and quickly thanked the two before leaving. He went back home to explain to his mom the situation of him leaving to travel, who was quite happy with the thought of him going on a journey for no spoken or hinted reason, and proceeded to give him a new pair of shoes to give him a bit of "zip" in his step.

Whoever designed the ad and catchphrase for these shoes deserved to die, as it made his mom say it three times as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Hey, did you ever give your Bagon a name?" His mother asked as he opened the door to leave. He was going to wave it off and continue onwards when he realized that he DIDN'T give it a nickname just yet, and took a moment to consider one. It would be an uncommon name, and people would poke fun at it due to it starting with an R, but he didn't care about it so much.

"I have something in mind. I'll be sure to visit soon mom!" He hurried off to Route 101 and released Bagon from its Pokeball. It looked around for an opponent, something he was sure would start showing up now, and smiled at it. "Hey Bagon, I realized that I didn't give you a name earlier, so how does Ravenous sound? The injuries you leave behind are rather devious, and the name makes you sound like a fierce fighter, which you so are by the way." Reki was expecting a nod, maybe a happy sounding cry of its name, or even a shake of its head, but he wasn't expecting for it to reply back in a particular manner.

_"Its an okay name, but sounds a bit too specific. I like the R aspect though, got any others?"_

"Wait, you can speak English?" Or was it Japanese? He gave up understanding the language barrier a long time ago, but this was something else entirely.

_"No, I'm speaking Poke, but I bet your Pokedex is translating everything I say."_ Reki pulled out the device in question, looking through its fancy features and, sure as shit, the translation function was already turned on, though when the professor turned it without turning the device itself on was a mystery. He grabbed a pair of headphones from his mp3 player and plugged them in, making sure to lower the Pokedex's volume so he didn't turn deaf anytime soon.

"Well, I like the name Ravenous. Otherwise, why not go for something like Richard, Regulus, or even Revy?" Bagon shook his head at each of the names.

_"Regulus is too sophisticated, Richard has too much history behind it, and Revy is a GIRL'S name."_

"Why don't you like the name Ravenous anyway? You're a Dragon type Pokemon, a very special one at that, so it fits."

_"I can agree that I'm special, but not because of my fighting skills."_ He wanted to interrupt that his "skills" were currently nothing except Bite and Rage, which weren't too impressive with the body the Pokemon had, but kept his mouth shut. No need to piss off a Dragon ya know? _"I'm a modest Dragon, meaning I don't really want anything too fancy or too negative, which means I'm more focused on dealing damage than focused on destruction."_

"Okay, but explain this to me then. If you aren't ravenous, then why do you take a piece of your opponent in your mouth and chew on it like Leftovers? Isn't the act of taking more than necessary greedy, which is a commonly related word to rapacious and voracious?" Bagon looked at him with widened eyes, either at the question he asked, or from the rather unused words he used as an example to prove the Pokemon wrong. It slowly nodded after a minute of silence, which by that point Reki thought he broke the little guy's brain from the question.

_"Ravenous it is, master."_

"Reki is fine. Trust me, I feel like a king just by having you as my partner." One of the nearby bushes rustled with activity, causing the two to focus on it and slowly walked over to it. He looked at Ravenous and made a biting motion with his hand, which the Pokemon understood and jumped into the bush with its teeth gleaming in joy at the thought of a meal. The loud cry that followed made him look in the bush and found his Pokemon biting the skull of a short ferret that had a long, furry tail. He pulled out the Pokedex and scanned it, though he had a feeling it wasn't going to matter as the little thing looked much weaker than he would want to deal with on his team.

**"Sentret, the Scout Pokemon. They take turns standing guard when it is time to sleep. The sentry awakens the others if it senses danger. If one becomes separated, it turns sleepless with fear. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Despite the fact that it was a Johto region Pokemon, the fact that it was weak meant that it would be pointless to save, and simply watched unwithered by Ravenous' current action of biting the skull until the Sentret stopped moving. A small, unusual beep made him look at the Pokedex and saw that Ravenous finally gained a level, putting him at level 6.

_"Mmmmm, this is tasty. I must remember what breed this is so I can chew on their meat for a while."_

_'Modest my ass.'_

The duo made it to Oldale town without worry, though the first place he went to was the Pokemart to pick up ten Pokeballs and a Potion while he thought about it. He was glad to have a Pokedex now, as the guy behind the counter couldn't refuse him to the researcher discount, which made his bad spending habit (something he picked up from his mom, might he add) come back for a moment. At least he got a Premier Ball, whatever that was. As he walked towards Route 102, he noticed two things. The first was that the signs the nerd put up were no longer there, and the second was that the same nerd who blocked the Route in the first place was standing near the flowers in the middle of the small town. He, mostly for his own amusement, asked why he wasn't "investigating" the foot prints, and got back a rather interesting reply.

"The main footprints ended up being my own, as I stepped in a small puddle of mud before entering the larger pile and, well, cause myself to waste plenty of time. What I did discover was that there has been several unknown piles of mud forming around the small pond, as well as random mud prints in the forest, so whatever made this one is living in the pond, I figure. Sadly, I have no Pokemon, and I would have to have either a Grass, Electric, or a neutral element for me to try to confront, but what about you? Could you catch it and show me?"

Rather than answer right away, he took a few steps back to look at the pond in question. It wasn't that large or wide of a pond, maybe a few minute walk around the part of it that was open to be walked upon, though there was a wide patch of tall grass on the west side of it. If there was something in the pond, he would bet that it would either rest in the tall grass or deep in the pond itself, something he was sure wouldn't pop out from its watery home unless it was on its own terms. He walked onto the Route, pulling out one Pokeball and released Ravenous before taking a few steps closer to the patch of tall grass. Something blue poked out of the grass, causing him to pause and think of any large blue Pokemon that preferred sleeping on land, only to come up empty with the exception of possibly a Walrein, but they preferred to be near cold ocean water, nothing like a pond or a lake. He heard a twig suddenly break, the old cliché that usually happened before the monster would appear in the classic movies his parents told him about, and noticed the stick that Ravenous stepped on.

_"Uh...Opps?"_ The Dragon type whispered, though it did nothing to improve his mood when the blue Pokemon hiding in the field of tall grass moved, causing the duo to take several steps back and watched as it stood up. It must have been 4'11, though the long, dark blue fins on top of its head made him unsure if they added to the overall height or not, with a plump, slick body, though certainly not in the fat or obese sense. As if to add to the "monster" characterization, it had a pair of orange prongs on its cheeks, certainly adding damage to them in the form of a head slap, had long arms with orange arm guards, and a long, dark blue fin that could easily create a decent wave if it was in the water.

_"Who wants to _PLAY_!"_ The mighty Pokemon shouted, looking at them with a large grin. Well, he assumed it was a grin from the happy tone it had in its voice, but dismissed the thought when it ran towards them to possibly knock them down.

"Jump and bite its prongs if you can!" Reki jumped away, keeping his eyes on Ravenous as he quickly put away the Bagon's Pokeball and scanned the unknown Pokemon with the Pokedex. The sooner he got answers, the quicker he could see how fast he needs to run away from this thing, or where he should run to, incase he could lead it away from him and get around it. Ravenous landed a solid bite onto the Pokemon's prong, which was slightly unexpected considering how tall the creature was, and found himself confused at the loud cry that escaped its lips. Why would such a powerful looking Pokemon cry out as if it took an arrow to the knee?

_"Oww, that hurts"_ It shot a small burst of water at Ravenous' face, forcing it to let go and carefully dodged the Pokemon's fat feet. The Bagon went for another Bite, though this time going for one of its thick fingers, well, digits, and, shockingly, was able to land a hit. Was it possible that the Pokemon was going into hibernation?

_'During the spring time? Che, like that would ever happen.'_ The Pokedex dinged, making him open the device and looked at its contents, which were quite odd to see.

**"Swampert, the Mud Fish Pokemon. If it senses the approach of a storm and a tidal wave, it protects its seaside nest by piling up boulders. It swims as fast as a jet ski. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** So, he was facing a Pokemon that was obviously a Water type, but had some serious connection to Ground from what the "swamp" part of its name, as well as the "mud" aspect of its title must have hinted at. Oddly enough, he had a sense a deja vu crawl up on his leg.

No, wait, that was a Wurmple, which he quickly kicked at the Water Pokemon and looked at the Pokedex. It already lost a third of its health from Ravenous' attacks, which he realized that he should be paying more attention to the battle than the Pokedex, and noticed that his little Bagon was not only entering in a Rage, but was also rather low on health, a first for the Dragon. He swapped the Pokedex for a Potion, mentally thanking prof. Birch for signing him up for the P.S.C. and quickly grabbed Bagon and ran to the other side of a small bundle of trees.

"Come on, please don't be too injured."

_"Ugh,"_ Ravenous let out a groan as the needle from the Potion punctured its skin, forcing in its healing properties to quickly give it a quick energy boost, as well as mend any small fractures or bruising it may have had. "I'm not a baby you know. Dragons are a lot harder to take down...and something like that won't be able to take me down easily."

"That thing you fought was a Swampert dude. I'm sure it could have crushed you to a pancake in a moment if it really wanted to. Did you SEE the size of its hands and the muscle that supported it?"

"Hey, are you a new trainer?" Reki looked up to see a short boy wearing a blue cap backwards, had a yellow shirt on, and a pair of blue shorts. Rather than wait for an answer, the boy continued talking like any brat would. "Wanna battle?"

"Kid, can't you see that I'm healing my Pokemon at the moment?"

"...I take it that is a yes! Go Poochyena!" A short, gray puppy with yellow eyes and black fur around its face and part of its neck appeared, growling at them. Reki, rather than reject the option of battle, placed Bagon down and placed the used Potion back in his bag to be thrown away later. If the kid wanted a battle, he would get a quick battle.

"Bite it real hard Ravenous!" The poor, poor Pokemon couldn't do anything except howl in pain as most of its front left leg was ripped off, revealing a third of its bone for the world to see. It tried to Tackle into him, hoping to at least cause some damage to the one that injured it so badly, only to miss and earned another Bite for its failure.

And another.

And another.

And another before watching the poor bloody Pokemon fall to the ground with its eyes fluttering to stay open.

"Okay, I give! I give! You're just too strong for me!" The kid cried out, throwing him a few bills before recalling his Pokemon and ran back to Oldale town. He took a moment to listen for any signs of the Swampert, sighing in content when he heard nothing but the small cries of the kid he just beat, and walked into the next patch of tall grass to find some clear, solid ground to travel. He noticed a long net was perched by one of the trees and went to grab it, seeing as free stuff is the best stuff to have, only to groan as the owner, another kid wearing a straw hat, came out of the wall of trees and challenged him to a battle.

If it wasn't for the fact that he liked the thought of earning some quick, guilt free cash, he would have ignored the kid, made an excuse as to why he went for the net in the first place, and left. Instead, he had Ravenous defeat two Wurmples, who helped raise his level up to 7, and walked away with a big grin on his face as he found yet ANOTHER kid waiting for him, though this one seemed to be cocky. The reason for this cocky attitude?

A Taillow.

A _freaking_ Taillow.

The kid, Allen if he remembered correctly, kept on having his Zigzagoon use Growl against Ravenous, lowering his attack until its Bites barely made any damage to the fuzzy Pokemon. He, fortunately, was able to have his Bagon tap into the powers known as Rage to defeat it, though the sacrifice was necessary in the eyes of the kid so his Taillow could defeat the Dragon type with Peck, a Flying type move. Now, if the bird could, oh, he didn't know, FLY, then it would be a different ball game, but it couldn't, which made it very open for a cruel, brutal Bite to the beak, nearly tearing it off due to the sharpness of its teeth, and earned a quick victory.

After that, the only other person on the path to the next city was a average height girl with a nice bust wearing a short skirt, but she kept on looking away from him, most likely due to seeing what he could do with his Bagon, and took the chance to go through the grass in hopes of staying out of the view of the Swampert, considering there was a ledge that took led right into its "bed", if it could be called that. As he took a few steps into the grass, and noticed in glee that the girl was looking away from him the entire time, he saw a blur of blue run in front of him and proceeded to say words that no little kid should ever hear.

_"I found you! Now its time for you to play with me!"_ Reki quickly released Ravenous, preparing to tell it to go for a Bite attack, only for the Swampert to throw a hand-full of mud at its face, blinding it for several moments, as well as made it miss the Bite attack it tried to launch at the mighty foe. The next few minutes were filled with awkward dodges and hits fueled by Rage, though neither of the two opponents got hit by the other's attack.

"Sneak around its back and Bite its fin!" He was thankful for the loud scream of pain the Swampert released at the painful attack, as it hinted that it may have been a critical hit. He grinned as the mighty Pokemon flinched, taking a step back in fear, which allowed him to do two things. The first was to check out the health of the Pokemon, which was close to the bare bit of yellow, borderline red, and the second was to fish out a Pokeball to throw at it, hopefully catching it. Though, to be realistic, he hoped it would stall it enough for them to run away without it knowing where to look. "Rage!"

_"Don't hit me. I just want to play!"_ Ravenous was able to land a solid hit with its little limb, though it wasn't able to get away in time to avoid a Water Gun to the face, forcing it to slam head first to the ground. He threw the Pokeball, running towards the Bagon as he fished out his second Potion and kept an eye on the Pokeball that was going to stall. He managed to get the Potion in Bagon when the ball broke, revealing a disoriented Swampert to him, and it didn't look too happy at the moment. "I just want to play!" It began throwing mud around with no sense of pattern, making it hard for them to avoid getting hit by the nasty stuff. He threw another Pokeball, pressing the handle of the Potion at the same time to heal Ravenous as the ball shook two times before breaking.

"Use Rage once more, that way it will be too weak to do anything." Ravenous nodded, slowly moving towards the left, something that the Swampert picked up on and threw another slab of mud at the Dragon. Ravenous moved to the side, running up to the left of the Water/Ground type and jumped to the left, avoiding the muddy arm that nearly caught it, and landed a Rage-infused punch to its armpit, making the Pokemon widen its eyes and clutch the area, allowing the Dragon to get away from it. "Pokeball, go!" It sucked the Swampert in, shaking for a moment before breaking free. He didn't even give it a chance to take a breath before throwing another Pokeball.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And even the Premier ball too, which didn't even shake once before the Swampert broke free, truly showing how pathetic that model of Pokeball was. He soon realized that he was down to one Pokeball, forgetting the battle for a moment and wondered where the hell the rest of his Pokeballs went off to, when he heard the painful cry of his Bagon and looked to see it was sent colliding into a tree curtious of a Water Gun. The Swampert that was looking so playful what seemed to be hours ago was now glaring at him with a vicious frown on its face, and it went towards Ravenous for a Tackle that would promise either a broken back or instant death, neither of which sounded pleasing to deal with.

"Leave him alone!" The Pokeball slammed into the back of its head, causing it to pause before being sucked into the sphere that fell on the floor. He ran, watching as it shook once before jumping over it, unsure if it would shake for a second time like the others or not. He picked up Ravenous, turning around to see that the ball shook once again as he took several steps back, prepared to run into the next town over if he had to just to get away from that Pokemon, and heard it crack, yelling as he turned around and nearly ran out of the wild grass.

_"Stop!"_ Ravenous' random order made him pause, looking down at the Dragon type in confusion. Why did he want him to stop when the Swampert was going to kill them in a few moments? They needed to get the hell out of here! _"It ran away."_ Reki turned around, unbelieving of what he just heard. There was no sign of the monstrosity that was known as Swampert, nor were there any new muddy tracks that showed its escape, another clue of it not running away. He did notice, on top of a cruddy pile of mud, was a single, sealed Pokeball, and slowly picked it up, looking inside to see a tired looking, yet oddly peaceful Swampert inside of it. Ravenous must have saw it as well, for it looked at the ball as if it was a car wreck that happened before his very eyes and slowly turned to him. _"You caught it?"_

"Yea...I guess I did." Silence formed between them, though it was neither awkward or depressing silence. No, it was or the realization that a miracle happened before their very eyes. The last, basic Pokeball model caught such a dangerous, most likely high leveled Pokemon, and lived without any serious injury to boot. Nothing would most likely ever replace such a wonderful feeling inside their hearts. _'And to think... This is only the first day of my journey.'_ A small 'ping' caught their attention, causing Reki to put Ravenous down and opened the Pokedex.

_"I want to see what came up on the guy!"_ Reki had no problem showing the Pokemon the information, considering he didn't see what changes appeared on the screen yet, and showed it to him first. Ravenous suddenly had a dead look on his face, mumbling something too low for his ears to pick up on before turning the screen towards himself. He felt his jaw drop at the sight, his eyes quickly starting to water to the point of burning his eyelids off, and proceeded to shout what may have been the most shocking fact of his life to the world.

"ITS ONLY AT LEVEL 3!"

-Author Note-

I...hate...Swamperts! At least the random encounter generator is working up a charm, even if I had this particular Swampert chasing after me like a bat out of hell. It was the only thing that I caught, and it cost me everything except one Potion, and I would have used it next before running away if that was the case, seeing as Ravenous nearly had no PP left for his moves. With any luck I'll come across a few easy to beat trainers so I can stock up on a Pokeball or three and a Potion so I can get through the next part without any serious hassle. I'm stuck between two story ideas for Swampert and its reason to exist at such a low level, so it may be a day before I attempt another chapter.

Anyway, there isn't much to say here since this story is still fairly new, so until next time, stay golden, and please drop a review!

-Reki's Team-

Ravenous (Bagon): Level 7, Modest nature. Held Item: Leftovers

Attacks: Rage, Bite.

Swampert (no nickname known at the moment): Level 3, Naughty nature. Held Item: None

Attacks: Tackle, Growl, Mud-Slap, Water Gun


	3. Day 2: Part 1

The next morning was kind to Reki, most likely thanks to the warm breakfast that was given to him for free by one of the Nurse Joys stationed in Petalburg City, and he gratefully took the kindness with open arms. His Pokemon were completely healed with a well deserved cycle, they ate enough berries, even if the newest member of the team still evoked fear in his soul, and they were, much to his surprise, getting along with one another. He had a hunch about the Swampert, or at least its evolutionary line, and opened up the Pokedex to scroll for its entry.

_'Well, that didn't take long.'_ Literally, it was within the first nine entries in the Pokedex, most of which were still blank and waiting to be filled, and clicked on it. There was no known area for the Swampert breed to thrive in, and its various detailed entries, most of which were from previous Pokedex models might he add, were old and were of little help. He went up two entries, hitting the one that had a bit of information in it, and opened the file. Sure enough, that deja vu feeling came back up, and he found himself looking at the basic form of the Swampert.

Mudkip.

_'But that doesn't answer as to HOW a final form Pokemon has the level of a basic stage. Is it possible it has amnesia and it is only trying to get back its memories?'_ It wasn't all that shocking to hear, considering some of the stories he recalled being told by his old friends back in the city. Pokemon fought in horrible battles, sometimes to the very end, and there were many cases where a Pokemon developed amnesia due to taking a blow to the head. Most of the unfortunate ones were either released into the wild soon after their bodies were healed, or were killed as a form of mercy, though very few were kept and treated to recover their memories.

"Well...Sitting in here won't help me solve any mysteries now will it?" He grabbed his things, mentally thanking the room for having a working shower and a washer and dryer to clean his first set of clothes with, and left the center. Petalburg wasn't that big of a city to him, but it did have the standard Pokemon Center, Pokemart, and plenty of well built houses for the many residents walking around to stay in. The fact that there were two ponds in the city meant that there were probably a decent amount of Water types in the area, something his odd Swampert would like to play with. He made a quick stop to the Pokemart to pick up a few items, mostly two Potions and a few Pokeballs before leaving for the next Route when he noticed the gym.

Gyms were special training facilities where you could fight the trainers there and get a decent work out, rather than having your Pokemon fight weaker wild Pokemon all the time. The main draw for trainers to visit gyms were the gym leaders, people who not only took control of the gym and trained the people in there, but would give you a badge that would amplify either your control over your Pokemon or bump up their abilities just by being near you. It also didn't help that by collecting enough badges you could go up against the Elite Four, but he didn't really care for serious battling. As if a lightning bolt struck him, he felt himself jolt in realization of what was particularly special about this gym and walked into it. Sure enough, a tall, well groomed man with short, bowl cut black hair stood in the center of the room with a rather gentle smile on his face.

"Hello Reki. I see you're traveling around with Pokemon."

Norman, his father, was the gym leader in Petalburg City. How could he forget such an important fact? Literally, how could he forget something like that when he saw it on the news yesterday, as well as how much his mom bragged about it as if she won the lottery?

"Yea, I managed to get one from professor Birch, got a Pokedex, and decided to visit the gym to see how things were." His father was about to say something when someone knocked on the door.

"Ah, its okay to come in." Reki turned around to see the newcomer, and was surprised to see someone who looked as nervous as a virgin on his first date, paler than a coma patient, and looked as if he was going to say something offensive without meaning it. All in all, he looked like a wimp who stayed inside all day. As he thought this, the boy came closer to them, wearing a white button up with green pants that seemed to match his pale green hair. He certainly was sticking to a Grass type theme wasn't he?

"Yes, hello. I was told to come here if I wanted a Pokemon. You see, I'm going to be staying with some relatives in Verdanturf Town, and I didn't want to be so alone, so I want to take a Pokemon with me. The only problem is...well, I don't know how..." It took all of Reki's will power to not face fault or slap his mouth to hold back the laughter that wanted to roar in total amusement. How could someone NOT know how to catch a Pokemon in this day of age? Did this person avoid watching TV, the internet, and any reading material found in the Pokemon Center, Pokemart, or just about ANYWHERE?

"Of course I'll help you catch a Pokemon. Not only will I loan you one of my Zigzagoon and give you a Pokeball, but I'll also send my son, Reki, with you so he can protect you from any swarms." He was about to interrupt his father, knowing full well that he didn't want to help some random kid he didn't know, and most likely wouldn't care about; however, one stern look from the man silenced him. The sickly kid, on the other hand, looked at the two Pokeballs with widened eyes and smiled like a kid in a candy store.

"Wow...A Pokemon! Thank you sir! I'll be back as soon as possible." The kid turned to him with a curious look on his face. Did he have a drool stain or something on his face? "Are you really coming with me?"

"Yea," Reki replied, "I want to see what other Pokemon are out in the area before leaving anyway." Better to lie and make the kid a bit more comfortable than tell the truth and earn the wrath of his father and make a sickly kid possibly have a heart attack. They quickly left the gym, going straight to the area of tall grass that he and Ravenous fought the Swampert yesterday, which was unsurprisingly still coated with mud, and sighed. He doubted that any smart Pokemon would be resting in what was a battle ground, so either something desperate or weak was going to be here. Not that there was anything wrong with weak Pokemon or anything, but still.

"Pokemon hide in tall grass, don't they?" Reki didn't even bother answering the question. It was a pointless one, considering they were already IN the grass. "Please watch me and see if I can catch one properly." If the guy was a girl, he would have made a crack at how perverted that could have sounded with the alteration of the word 'catch' with something else, but held his tongue. He looked away for only a moment to admire the tree where Ravenous was thrown at, taking note of the Pokemon shaped imprint of bare bark, when he heard a loud gasp and turned around. Not only was the kid on the ground with his knees in the mud, but he turned just in time to see a small, fragile looking white Pokemon wearing a green helmet with a red horn sticking out slowly getting off the ground.

_'Did he just_ kick _that Pokemon? I missed a kickoff, dammit!'_ The next few minutes were an embarrassment to all Pokemon trainers out there, as he watched the kid order the Zigzagoon to Tackle the weakened Pokemon, who did nothing but Growl at them. Its variation of a Growl wasn't as annoying as May's Mudkip, but it was still bad enough where he wanted the battle to just end with either a corpse or it being caught in the Pokeball. In the end, it was caught without any serious problems, making him look at the Pokedex to see if it picked up any interesting information about the fragile Pokemon while he waited for the kid to stop jumping in joy.

**"Ralts, the Feeling Pokemon. A Ralts has the power to sense the emotions of people and Pokemon with the horns on its head. It takes cover if it senses any hostility. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Growl was obviously one of them, but it wasn't as if he would need to file the information down for later, seeing as the Pokemon wasn't his.

"Th-Thank you for helping me." The kid stated, earning him a look from Reki. "We can go back to the gym now." Thank God. He honestly wasn't sure how much longer he could be around this kid and his sheltered attitude before knocking him out and leaving him to rest in a pile of mud.

* * *

"Hey, you!" Reki paused at the entrance of Route 104, turning around to see a chunky man wearing a tacky blue tropical shirt with black shades. Was he some foreigner who didn't know his way around? By the time the man got close to him, the man wore a neutral frown on his face, as if he didn't find what he was looking for. "Sorry, I thought you would be the one I was looking for. Your clothes are too new, and they're certainly not dirty enough, and the fact you only have two Pokeballs must mean you're a new trainer."

_'Sorry for keeping my clothes clean and in decent condition?'_ He thought to himself, lowering his eyes at the man. The man, upon seeing this, waved his hands in front of him and took a step back.

"Dude, chill! I didn't mean it in a bad way! I just came around here due to a rumor I heard yesterday about this crazy Swampert that escaped from a delivery truck and wanted to see if I could catch it. The damn thing is gone though, supposedly to some trainer with balls of steel if that one lass by the scene was right. Anyway, bye." The chunky man walked past him, going through Petalburg Woods, the only way to get to the next town unless he borrowed someone's Pokemon that could use the move Surf. If the Swampert he had was acting more mature he would use it, but he was afraid it would try to drown him by playing a "game" of who could get more soaked than the other.

"Hey, you wanna battle? I got some tough Pokemon that could beat whatever you have!" A kid dressed similar to the ones he beat yesterday walked over to him, making a motion to the Pokeballs on his belt. In the end, he had a feeling the kid wouldn't give up so easily if he told him no, so he simply nodded, making a motion for Ravenous' ball when he realized that he should see if his Swampert was "actually" at level 3, or if the Pokedex actually made a mistake. "Come on, I don't have all day!" The boy released a Zigzagoon, a Pokemon he was starting to get a bit tired of seeing all the time, and responded by bringing out Swampert. "Woah! I haven't seen that Pokemon before!"

"I bet. Water Gun Swampert."

_"Hehehehe, play time!"_ The Water type shot out a wide burst of water that knocked the little pup behind the boy, completely soaking it at the same time. Being soaked in water didn't stop it from reacting faster than Reki anticipated and managed to land a Tackle directly to Swampert's chest.

"That's the way to do it!" The boy shouted as Swampert smiled at the little pup.

_"Awww, that was nice, but let me try!"_ Reki had the decency to wince and flinch at the sight of Swampert slamming itself into the pup, sending it flying to the nearby ledge and didn't get up. Luckily, the Zigzagoon was only unconscious, and the boy quickly brought out his second Pokemon, a Seedot if he remembered correctly, and watched as it started glowing red.

"Knock it out with another Tackle!" The attack went through, knocking the little Pokemon to the floor before the Water type was forced to move away. The little thing was still conscious, glowing a darker shade of red that worried Reki to a certain extent. Was it possible for such a little thing to be storing all of the damage done to it for a super counterattack? "Once more, but with feeling!"

"Bide Seedot!" He was surprised to see that the second Tackle missed its target, though he kept his eyes on the Seedot to see what exactly Bide did, and he could say that he wasn't impressed. It, in truth, was a simple one-shot variation of Rage, taking a few turns for the proper energy level to come around for a good attack; however, the power behind the Seedot's attack was nothing to worry about, as the health bar on Swampert didn't really move down to dangerous levels.

_"I'm bored of you, so I'm ending this!"_ A single Tackle was all it took for the Seedot to fall unconscious, causing its owner to recall it and start building up tears in his eyes. He wanted to feel bad for the kid, he really did, but he couldn't really focus on him when his Pokemon kept on chanting "I'm the Ender!" in the background.

"I-I'm not gonna battle trainers ever again!" The kid ran into Petalburg City, dropping cash in the process that Reki picked up before the wind could take it away. He turned to the Swampert and prepared to return it to its Pokeball when he heard his Pokedex ping. Pulling it out and opening the device, he looked up at the Pokemon once more before reading the contents.

_'It leveled up to level 4. So, I can honestly say that the Pokedex isn't wrong, but wow, two battles was all it took to level this thing up?'_ He looked around the general area, noticing that two other people, a fisherman and a blonde woman wearing a green summer dress and had a wicker basket each having a Pokeball on their person and smiled. It wouldn't hurt to ask them for a quick battle, would it?

Sadly, each of the battles with the two people he pointed out to himself didn't take long, mostly due to the unfortunate fact that each of them only had a single Pokemon to their name. Each battle was enough to bring up Ender, as the Swampert now referred to itself as, up to level 5, two levels below Ravenous, and healed it with a quick Potion before entering the Petalburg Woods. He briefly considered going back to Petalburg City and taking a trip to the center, only to recall that the boy he defeated might be there crying up a storm, and he didn't need to deal with drama at the moment.

The woods, as he expected, was crawling with Bug type trainers, each wanting to battle him in order to show off their Bug Pokemon. He responded by bringing out either Ender or Ravenous, depending on who had more Pokemon on their team, and beat them without too much hassle. Ravenous managed to grow to level 8 by defeating a trainer who had four Wurmples and saw some random Sentret to get new Leftovers from, and Ender fought the other one who had two Nincada. He took a moment to check their health, smiling at each of them barely taking any damage, though made a note to give them a bath to get all of the webs off their bodies, and continued onward.

"Excuse me." A man wearing a fancy suit walked towards him, looking around as if something was going to pop out in front of him at any moment. "Have you happened to see any Shroomish around here? It is my favorite Pokemon and I haven't seen a single one in these woods." He wasn't too surprised by that, considering they had excellent camouflage in a place like this. He was going to say that to the man when he saw someone who looked like nothing but trouble running up to them. He wore a white and black stripped shirt that reminded him of a prison uniform, blue pants with a white design on the pant leg, and wore a bandana with a symbol on the front.

"Hey, you, Devon worker!" The troublemaker shouted, causing the uniformed man to take a step behind him. A grown man hiding behind a teenager. Anything wrong with this picture here anyone? "Hand me those papers you have with you! Do you know how hard it is to find you in this blasted forest!"

"If you think this is bad, you should see the Viridian Forest." The troublemaker grabbed his Pokeball, causing the man behind him to gulp and put his hands on Reki's shoulders. "Please take care of him! My Pokemon are too weak from fighting the Sentret swarm." He was going to let Ender out to end the battle really quick, but he decided that Ravenous needed a good battle, and the troublemaker seemed to have some kind of useful Pokemon with him.

"Lets take care of this runt Poochyena!" That breed of Pokemon was a Dark type, meaning that Bite wouldn't do much damage to him, and since Rage didn't do much damage unless used repetitively, he would have a long battle ahead of him, unless the Pokemon was of a lower level of course. "A Bagon? Doesn't mean it will be stronger than my Poochyena! Tackle it to the grave!" Could the guy cut it out with the dramatics? They were completely unnecessary for a battle, and there was no girl to impress around them for such a need, so why do it in the first place?

"Bite, follow up with Rage." Poochyena was faster than Ravenous, allowing it to slam into its side, but wasn't fast enough to avoid a bite to its shoulder. The attack didn't cause the Dark type to wince or cry out in pain, so he knew that the attack didn't do anything critical harming to it, though it was enough for it to slap sand into the Bagon's eyes, forcing it to let go and forget about using Rage, which allowed for the opponent to prepare to Tackle into him again. The Pokemon made a run for it, moving faster than before with its eyes set on slamming its head into Bagon's chest, and Reki waited for it to get close before issuing the order. "Rage!"

"Don't let it get to you. Howl and Tackle his ass!" Reki took the chance to heal Ravenous with a Potion while the puppy took its chance to Howl, and noticed that it was looking at the Bagon with blood lust in its eyes. He moved out of the way before the Dark type could target him for an attack, slowly pulling out another Potion in case the dog managed a critical hit, and waited to see what happened. The Poochyena came charging, eyes fixated on Ravenous as it came closer and closer, something the Bagon gladly met by running towards it with his mouth open. By the time the two were within arms reach, the Dark type slammed its head into Ravenous' head, expecting him to most likely fly upwards and deal additional damage. Only, rather than the Dragon being forced back, it moved to the right, making the Poochyena move forward in shock, and bit into its right shoulder, which was quickly followed by a sickening "CRUNCH" and the pup screaming in pain.

The Poochyena lowered its left paw, slapping a cloud of dust towards Ravenous, only for him to let go and used Bite again, this time going for the its hind leg. Though no scream came out of the Pokemon, there was no doubt that it was seriously injured, and the fact that its eyes were starting to gloss over meant that the battle was about to end. He was about to issue one the last order when the troublemaker recalled his Pokemon, a glare set on his face.

"Dammit! I can't fail again! I already failed with locating that Swampert, but I won't fail this!" He threw some money on the ground, pointing at him with a snarl now open to see. "You'll regret messing with Team Aqua!" The man left soon after that, allowing Reki check on Ravenous to see if he needed another Potion or not, and sighed in delight when he saw that it wasn't needed. An indicator from his Pokedex informed him that his Pokemon leveled up to 9, a welcomed bit of information if he ever heard one, and turned to the uniformed man behind him.

"Thank you for protecting me! I know, I'll reward you with this!" Was it money? He hoped he was getting money, as he had a feeling he was going to stock up on Potions in the next town, and instead found his thought crushed by being handed a blue and white Pokeball. Why would he give him a single Pokeball? "This is a Great Ball, and I hope you'll catch something nice with it. Now I have to go back and report what happened here to my boss. See ya!" The worker left the area as if he was running a marathon, leaving Reki alone with his Bagon, who was looking at the Great Ball in his hand with a frown.

_"I hope it isn't a piece of junk like that Premier Ball."_

* * *

"Welcome, my comrade, to the Flower Shop! How do you feel about planting something that is not only helpful to your Pokemon, but, as long as you leave a seed in the ground, will regrow itself within days, hours even! Even if you forget about it, it will continue to replant itself until you go and pluck a berry from it! So, what do you say? Shall you become a comrade in the Berry Association?" The motherly brunette looked nice at first glance, though that opinion quickly changed when she opened her mouth. He was about to walk out when he saw another girl, one who wore a yellow and red shirt with brown pants, walked in front of the woman and placed a hand in front of her mouth.

"I'm completely sorry about that! She loves berries so much that she always talks about them and wants to spread the love around. So, as a token of appreciation, take this Wailmer Pail and a random berry as a gift from me, okay?" Reki could only nod, slowly taking a few steps back before jetting out of the place as if Death itself was upon him. He stopped a few feet away from the building and noticed that there were a few berry trees to his right and walked towards them to look at them. He recognized the blue berries as the Oran berries, which healed the Pokemon holding it a little when consumed, and was about to take both out when he noticed the crazy woman looking at him in the window.

_'Is...that a spade in her hand?'_ She raised it to her throat, making a slow, cruel slicing motion that made him shiver before only pocketing one of the berries. He took the other berry, the one that was given to him moments ago, and planted it in an empty spot near the Oran tree, hoping that the sight pleased the woman. It must have, for she was no where to be seen in any of the windows, and let out the breath of air he was holding. He noticed that there was a small path leading behind the flower shop and decided to explore it, knowing that anything that wasn't the main path held goodies that no one would expect, and suddenly wished he hadn't gone into this batch of tall grass.

_"Get out of my way!"_ Reki barely had time to register that a Pokemon, a Wingull from the looks of it, was flying past him, and nearly got a Pokemon to the face if he reacted slower. Before he could actually ask it, or anyone around him what was happening, the answer came in front of him in the form of a small, white pony with fire flowing from its head and tail, though why a Fire type Pokemon was in a grassland he wouldn't know.

"Okay, that certainly isn't right. Ender, Water Gun!" The Pokemon that came out wasn't Ender, but Ravenous, who looked up at him with a curious look upon his face. It was too late to change his mind though, as the Fire Pokemon noticed the duo and ran towards them with a determined look in its eyes.

_"None shall stand in my way!"_ Ravenous took the attack, replying with a Bite rather than pause to adjust to the sudden pain, and earned a rather loud cry from the pony Pokemon. It pulled away, opting for a Growl to try and psyche them out, but Ravenous ignored the noise to the best of its ability and went in for another Bite, this time making it flinch, and nearly gave in to a small Rage fueled jab. Seeing his opportunity to end this, Reki pulled out a Pokeball and threw it at the pony, watching as it got sucked up into the Pokeball and counted how many times it shook.

One...

Two...

Three...

Snap!

_"I will not be caught!"_ The Pokemon shouted as it reformed, taking a moment to relocate them and went in for another Tackle.

"Don't injure it anymore! Any more hits and we'll either kill it or force it to flee." Ravenous looked at him as if he was insane, but complied and, due to not focusing on the pony, earned a Tackle to the face for his stupidity. He threw another Pokeball before the pony could gloat, taking note of how many times the ball shook this time around, and smiled when the ball signaled that it caught the Pokemon. A quick beep informed him that the Pokedex registered the Pokemon, and handed the Bagon the Oran berry.

_"Thanks..." _The little guy spat out his previous Leftovers, revealing a bruised heart with plenty of puncture wounds, and ate the berry in a few quick bites. He pulled out the Pokedex, revealing that the Pokemon in question was a Ponyta, and was level 4 at that with an Adamant nature, which explained why it declared it wouldn't be caught. He considered if it was actually worth keeping on his team if there was a chance that it wouldn't want to work with him as easily as Ravenous and Ender did, and pushed back the thought for now.

"How are you feeling?"

_"Better...But my jaw is feeling sore, so I don't think I can use Bite for a while unless necessary. Use Ender for a while when it comes to battling, as I don't think Rage will really help out in the long run."_ He made sure to swap the places for their Pokeballs before recalling the little Dragon, hoping to get to the next city quickly to heal up his Pokemon, and noticed that the remainder of Route 104 was practically covered in trainers.

"...Fuck."

-Author Note-

Poor little Ravenous nearly died from the Ponyta, who landed one decent sized hit that not even Leftovers could help ease my worry for it. It is astounding as to how quickly Swampert levels up at the moment, though I can only wonder how long that will last until it takes the normal time to raise the guy. Out of everyone in the game, I've never liked Wally, and the fact that his Ralts only knew Growl when it was caught, while the usual wild ones at least had Growl and Teleport made me wonder if it was meant to die or something by its mother for some kind of lack of Psychic talent. I'm sure I'm reading too much into it, but maybe I'll write a one-shot in the future just to get my mind off it. Anyway, time to respond to some reviews!

**Selias:** I thank you for your review, but I take it you haven't looked into the Pokemon Emerald Randomizer rom hack on youtube. In it, with a little help from a Java program that comes with the file, you can take any Pokemon Emerald rom and change the starters you get, the item they hold, and the Pokemon you encounter in the wild if you want to. It wouldn't be a random journey if I left the encounter rate normal, now would it?

**Adin Terim:** This particular Randomizer is being a bit of a troll to be honest, as it keeps on throwing at me the same Pokemon, such as Sentret, for the first two towns and the woods. I swear, they love to swarm around me, or enjoy being eaten by Ravenous, whatever fits your fancy. Thank you for the review, and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter as you did with the last.

I'll be playing the game a bit before writing out the next chapter, so it may be a few hours to a day for the chapter to come out. So, until next time, stay golden everyone, and please drop me a review!


	4. Day 2: Part 2

He was a horrible trainer. A novice runt who felt as if he could take on the world with his starter and the greatest tool known to man: the brain. He thought he had it covered, seeing as he hadn't lost any matches, and he was able to heal his Pokemon before they got too deep in the red. So why did it happen?

_'I have to think about it. What led up to this point.'_ Reki sighed, looking at the tray of Pokeballs that was next to him. More specifically, at the one slot that was empty, void of what should have been there.

* * *

"Man, that was WAY too tiring!" Reki took a sip of his soda, reminiscing of the past two hours and how he spent them. The way up to the next town, Rustburo City, was through a wooden bridge that, near both entrances, were crawling with trainers of various types, such as a rich boy or a lass with an attitude. Ender was, for the most part, strong enough to quickly take out their Pokemon, and the constant level gain was also a well placed boost for power, though he unfortunately had to bring out Ravenous for a double battle against a pair of twin girls. He tried using his new Ponyta, who he nicknamed Ember due to finding out its gender in an awkward manner he wouldn't mention, but he found it was too weak against their Pokemon, and had to swap out.

As soon as he was done with the twins, politely thanking them before getting off the bridge, he took note of a fisherman catching a Magikarp and told himself he was going to battle him for some easy cash, and hopefully to let Ember vent a little of its anger upon the poor Water types. He soon entered the city, took a moment to take in the beauty of the busy city before heading straight for the Pokemon Center to run his party through a quick healing cycle. As he waited for his Pokemon to heal, he looked over at one of the tables and noticed a girl looking at a shiny metal disc, one that was usually reserved for TMs, and walked over to her, considering finding TMs were hard to come across.

"Excuse me, but where did you get that TM?" The girl turned to him with a blank look on her face.

"This isn't a TM. Its an HM, get your facts straight." Wow, what a rude little- "I got it from a man next door, who said I could easily get my Pokemon to cut down skinny trees with it!" Interruption aside, he nodded and thanked her for the information before visiting the man himself. Getting the HM was easy, and the man even said that he could teach it to any of his Pokemon at the moment that could learn it, but there was a catch.

The only way the Pokemon would be able to cut down small trees would be by defeating the current gym leader in the city and earning the Stone Badge. Gym battling wasn't really his cup of tea, but he sighed and accepted the fact, knowing that sometimes things just didn't go your way. It was easy to put two and two together to understand that the gym leader would be using Rock or Ground type Pokemon, which meant that Ender would be the best choice to go with. The only problem with just using the Swampert was that he didn't want to end up like most trainers and rely on it for every battle, allowing him to let his other Pokemon waste away in their Pokeballs.

_'I'll just have to focus on Ender and Ravenous for now. Training Ember will take too much time, not to mention without any actual Fire attacks she is basically a glorified Normal type.'_ Reki stopped back at the Pokemon Center to pick up his team before looking around the city for any good places to train, seeing as Route 104 and Petalburg Woods wouldn't do offer much of a variety to train against at the moment. His answers were solved in the form of Route 116, which was east of the city and had plenty of wild grass to find and beat some wild Pokemon in.

Ravenous was the main Pokemon he wanted to train, as not only was it just as tough as Ender, but was currently below the Water/Ground type by a level thanks to the quick rate the Swampert leveled up at. With him being at level 9, he now had the attack Leer in his slowly growing arsenal, even if the attack itself only lowered the stat of the opponent's Pokemon and didn't actually deal any damage. Even with the rather sub par attack, the Bagon didn't care to use it at all, preferring to focus on his basic Rage and Bite attack against the Sentret and the Ponyta that appeared on the Route, which he was sure was a bad area for a Fire type to be in, and watched as the little guy slowly leveled up to 10.

As they were walking through the grass, slowly walking towards a young boy wearing the standard bug catcher uniform, Reki heard something past the bushes near the trees and motioned for Ravenous to follow. The noise stopped as they got closer, making him think that possibly whatever made the noise already ran off, but the sound of a twig breaking in front of their direction told him otherwise, so he pressed on. Since he was much taller than his Dragon type partner, he was able to see over the bushes and could easily recognize the Pokemon that they were going to challenge with the possibility of capture, and he instantly knew they were outclassed.

The Pokemon itself was tall, about 6'3, maybe even a bit taller than that, with a large, shiny mane that seemed well groomed and cleaned with extreme care. Its orange fur clashed with the black obtuse angles that marked its body, though with the random strawberry blonde patches of fur around its ankles, as well as its large, bushy tail, the clash didn't really mean anything in the long run. What did matter was that the Pokemon looked as if it had about 300 pounds of weight on it, eas possibly one of the fastest Pokemon alive, and in the Kanto region it was worshiped as a Pseudo-Legendary.

In front of him was an Arcanine, and it looked at him with a rather notable frown upon its face.

_"LEAVE!"_ The mighty Pokemon roared its command, something that Reki didn't need to be told twice, picked up Ravenous and ran from the bushes. He didn't stop until he was behind a cluster of trees, something that he was surprised were kept there rather than being cut down, and looked at the Bagon who looked as if he nearly got ran over by a truck.

_"What...was that?"_

"That was an Arcanine buddy. Those are some Pokemon you DON'T want to mess with under any circumstance, unless you're maybe ten to twenty levels above it in terms of power. They're extremely fast, usually powerful, and the wild ones are known to be especially cruel to people who come upon them in the wild. The fact that we made it out alive was a miracle." A round of applause made him look around the area, hoping to spot the source of the sound itself. He shortly realized that he didn't have to look far at all, as the noise came from above, revealing a large, fat ape with a pink pig snout and a bit of white hair on top of its head that reminded him of a pair of petals.

_"Bravo on the show. Care to do it again?"_

"No thanks." Reki replied, sadly knowing which breed of Pokemon the newcomer was, and knew that if it was going to fight him, then he would have to catch it. The reason? His father would never allow him to go back home if he found out that he allowed a Slaking to die or go free in the wild, seeing as they were powerful Pokemon in their own right, if not a bit lazy depending on which ability it had. "I don't feel like dying a horrid death today."

_"Well, I'm gonna have to punish you for waking me up regardless. It takes forever to get back to sleep now a days thanks to all that construction in the cave."_ The Slaking jumped off the tree, landing a few feet away from them with a small grin on its face, either due to confidence in its abilities or due to the thought of fighting. Either way, Reki pointed at the Slaking and already had a command on his tongue.

"Bite!" Though the Slaking could get to them faster due to size alone, Ravenous himself was quick on his feet, allowing him to dodge its sudden foot that would have crushed its skull and bit its hand. Rather than scream or cry out, the Normal type yawned for what seemed to be a minute before looking down at the Dragon type.

_"Boy, that was a long one wasn't it?"_

"Get off and Bite at another area!" Ravenous, instead of running behind him or taking a chance to injure the other hand, it let go of the Slaking's hand and used its knee as a spring board to land a Bite on its nose. Though the king of laziness itself didn't cry out in pain, he could tell by the blood alone that the attack most likely did critical damage, and he was glad to see something was actually working on the opponent. "Alright! Get off him and start running in a circle!"

_"I...Feel tired..."_ Ravenous pushed itself off the Slaking, who stared at the little Dragon as it landed might he add, before realizing that the little guy fell asleep. Out of all the times for Bagon to pass out, why would it do so now? A small laugh from the Slaking made him think about the battle, and noticed that the blood that was pouring around its nose moments ago was now healed, as if nothing happened.

_"Ah, I feel better thanks to slacking off a bit. Now then, your friend there has the right idea, relaxation time!"_

"Ravenous, get up! Now is not the time to be sleeping!" The Slaking yawned as it walked closer to the sleeping Bagon, who showed no signs of waking up anytime soon. By the time the Slaking got close to the point of picking the Dragon up, it did so, smiling at it before using Scratch, digging its nails into Ravenous' chest, instantly waking it up as the Slaking dropped it.

_"Damn you!"_ The Bagon bit the Slaking's finger off, not only dealing critical damage he assumed, but made the ape-like Pokemon pause to look at its missing digit, allowing for another Bite to find its way onto its other arm. This time, it did more than just stand there looking at its missing finger, something Reki subconsciously hoped it would have kept doing. It responded by scratching the Dragon's head, forcing it to let go and tried to land another Bite, only for it to miss. It paused again, most likely from using its injured hand to hurt Ravenous, and grinned at the sight.

"See if you can bite off another finger or two on the other hand Ravenous!" Don't get him wrong, he was still going to catch the Slaking and most likely raise it for a bit before giving it to his father as a gift, but he was going to make sure it knew who was the top dog between them. Meanwhile, Ravenous made contact with the Slaking's hand, unfortunately jumping a bit too early to get any fingers to nibble off, and was forced in front of the Pokemon's mouth, who yawned as loud as it could.

_"Why...am I so tired all of a sudden?"_ Why was Ravenous falling asleep again! Not only did it JUST wake up, but the scratches the Slaking kept on delivering should have kept him up regardless. So why was he tired? Unless...

"Its the yawn itself! It knows Yawn, an attack that the Snorlax breed is known for! Dammit, I don't have any Awakenings on me either!" He was fortunate enough that his Bagon was able to let go of Slaking's hand and made it towards him before falling asleep again, causing him to wonder if he should bring out Ender to, well, end the battle so he could hurry up and catch it. He paused to push that idea out of his head, knowing that if he allowed Ender to take the win that not only would Ravenous never forgive him, but would show favoritism, which was something he didn't want to do.

He opened his bag, looking through every pocket while keep a small note of where the Slaking was. It was taking some time to get use to its scarred hands, which was good, but didn't do much for him at the moment. He had a few Potions, some Pokeballs, that stupid Wailmer Pail from that fucked up flower shop, and a blue berry with a brown bottom. He was about to put it away to look for another item when he recalled just how he got the berry, and what the old woman who gave it to him told him what it could do for a Pokemon during battle. He hurried to Ravenous' side and put the berry in its mouth, forcing it to chew and swallow the berry as best as he could until he realized that the Slaking was now standing over them with its good hand in the air.

_"It was fun while it lasted, but you young ones just don't know what you're dealing with."_ He felt his hands twitch, or was he feeling sweat leak from his pores? He couldn't tell what was happening to him, but he did know that he was afraid right now. Afraid to die before he could actually do something with his life. Afraid that he wouldn't see his parents or May again, but most of all...

_'I'm sorry Ravenous. I let you down.'_

He was saddened that he allowed for his starter Pokemon to die like this. At least they would die together. He felt the wind that followed the Slaking's arm fall downwards, tensing his body for the blow that was surely to come and take off his head in the process. After what seemed to be hours he realized that his hands stopped twitching, and that he felt no pain at all. He opened his eyes, which he didn't even notice that they were closed, and saw that Ravenous was not only awake, but was currently biting on Slaking's hand, causing the Pokemon to scream loudly and swing its arm to get the Dragon off it.

_"Meh Mokimall! Tme Mokimall!"_ It took a quick second for his nerves to calm down so he could realize what his starter was trying to say, and found an empty Pokeball and threw it. The beast was sucked into the Pokeball with ease, allowing Ravenous to hurry away from the spot the ball was and took a few breaths to calm down. God must have been happy with them, he thought, as the Pokeball didn't crack open, signaling that the Slaking was caught, which the sight of the sealed device allowed him to fall to the ground, laughing with tears of joy leaking from his eyes. He was alive! Ravenous was alive!

They were alive to continue their journey together!

* * *

Sadly for Reki, things didn't stay as happy as he wanted them to be.

The trip back to the Pokemon Center was awkward thanks to Ravenous not wanting to give up the fingers it bit off Slaking and wanted to use them as Leftovers. Though arguing with a Pokemon looked silly, he had to admit that it felt more humiliating to be forced to trade it a new slab of meat in exchange for the chewed on fingers. The Nurse Joy at the center looked at him with a grotesque look before taking the ball and the iced cup that held said fingers in it, informing her a bit of what happened before she walked away. He was happy that his Bagon's injuries weren't severe to the point that a single cycle couldn't heal it, and went off to buy some supplies, especially an Awakening or two to be safe, before picking up his starter and training in the Petalburg Woods to be safe.

Though it took longer, thanks to battling low-level Sentrets over and over, Ravenous and Ender were now at equal level, 12, which were the two Pokemon he planned to use in the gym. He noticed that it was getting close to 4 P.M. at that point and returned to the city, taking a Potions each to heal his main duo before entering the Rustburo gym. It had the feeling of a maze, which made things complicated seeing as he wanted to just deal with the gym leader and no one else, and sighed. He didn't want to use up his supplies so soon.

The attendant at the front of the gym was of no use, only encouraging him to beat everyone before reaching Roxanne, the leader of the gym who was also known for teaching at the school from time to time, yet told him everything he already knew. The gym dealt with Rock Pokemon, and only Water or Grass attacks had any super effective damage qualities to hurt them, leaving everything else, including Dragon type attacks, either neutral or ineffective. So, with not much to guide him, he chose the middle path, coming face to face with a Youngster, which he nicknamed all the little kids at one point, and sent Ravenous first. The Youngster only had one Pokemon, a Geodude, and the battle itself was fairly uninteresting, seeing as the Geodude started things off with a Mud Sport, which lowered the effectiveness of Electric attacks.

Why it was used, Reki couldn't tell you, but it was thanks to the kid's blunder that Ravenous was able to land a few Bite attacks to knock out the Geodude, even if he took a hit from a Tackle. The kid quickly handed him the cash for his victory before telling him the correct path to take to reach Roxanne, which was appreciated. The next battle he fought was a double battle against a Youngster and a Hiker, a tall, tan man who had plenty of hiking equipment to run a shop off his back if he wanted to. Though the double battle itself wasn't challenging, it cost him a Potion to use on Ravenous due to the Geodude they had, why they each had two Geodude, he didn't have a clue, focusing on the Dragon type for most of their attacks, despite Ender being the larger member of the two.

Then, after those two, he reached Roxanne, a pretty woman who looked about in her young twenties, maybe even late teens, wearing a blue business top with a pink tie and pink pants, though for all he knew they could have been stockings. He never paid attention to fashion. He noticed that she only had two Pokeballs on her belt, which meant that it would be an even two on two, and he watched as she sent out a Geodude. Why, oh why was it another Geodude? He was sure that other Rock and Ground type Pokemon existed in Hoenn, such as Trapinch, so why not have a bit of diversity in this place? As if to annoy him even further, the battle between the two took much longer than the others, though this was due to the fact that she ordered her Geodude to start things off with a Defense Curl.

From there, it became a game of cat and mouse, so to speak, as the Geodude switched between using Tackle and Defense Curl, sometimes allowing Ravenous to land the attack only so he could see that there wasn't much damage being done to the Pokemon. He was able to land a critical hit at one point thanks to the Geodude attacking and missing him, only for Roxanne to throw a Potion at the Geodude, who used it on itself and healed most of the bites. This continued on for at least a half hour, the only good part about it was that the Leftovers Ravenous munched on prevented its health from really dropping anywhere, though he used a Potion for good measure. It was by a stroke of luck that the Geodude missed again, allowing for a serious Bite to the face to hit its mark, puncturing an eye and caused it to pass out due to the pain.

"Do you want to continue using your Bagon?" Roxanne asked him. Her hand was already on her next Pokeball, a Geodude most likely, and shook his head. Ravenous could take whatever came his way, and he would be there to help him when he needed it. The gym leader frowned at that, at least for a moment, before smiling and releasing her final Pokemon. It reminded him of a stone tiki, though why it has a long red nose he didn't know, and brought out his Pokedex to get some information on it.

**"Nosepass, the Compass Pokemon. Its body emits a powerful magnetism. It feeds on prey that is pulled in by the force. Its magnetism is stronger in cold seasons. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Before he could even process the information he heard Ravenous scream as it was pulled towards the Nosepass, slamming into its pointy red nose, which he should have realized that it was made of stone like the rest of its body, and noticed that the Pokedex indicated that not only did his starter level up to 13, but that it was in the red, and told it to Bite and return so he could heal it. The Bagon landed a hit upon the top of its head, breaking the Pokemon's control of the magnetism so it could return to his side for a quick healing, only for two words to fill him with dread.

"Rock Tomb." If he hadn't read the Pokedex entry, he wouldn't have believed what he saw. The Nosepass raised its little arms, forcing three large boulders to be plucked out of the ground itself and forced them to fall towards them. He managed to get out of the way, shouting at Ravenous to dodge and focus on just that, only for the first boulder to land in front of him. The other two slammed to his sides, causing a single gasp to be heard before the room became silent. He was about to run over to the boulders when a single word from Roxanne stopped him. "Stop!"

"What? Why, I need to get my Pokemon out of there!"

"If you step on this field, you're leaving your spot, meaning you forfeit the match. Now stay where you are and continue the battle, or will you forfeit?" Rage. Pure, primal fury ran through his very body. His blood cells heated by the anger at what Roxanne just told him. Was she carved from the same stone as her Pokemon?

"Fine, Ender. Water Gun!" The look on her face would have been priceless as a memory, but he focused more on the Nosepass, which laid on the floor unconscious, hopefully dead a voice whispered in the back of his mind, as the Water Gun ended. He ran for the boulders, looking through the small gaps he could reach to see that Ravenous was barely breathing while what looked like a bone exposed itself from its shoulder. Why in the hell would a Nosepass use such large boulders to do this when smaller ones would have worked fine without the possibility of killing his Bagon! He recalled him, jumping off the boulder to see Roxanne near him, a look of concern on her face as she handed him the Stone Badge and a TM. He, rather than listen to what she had to say, recalled Ender and hurried to the Pokemon Center, uncaring for the guy in the suit who he found in the woods to be chasing after the troublemaker from before as he made his way to get Bagon healed.

Which is where he was now, sitting in the E.R. waiting for some good news about Ravenous. He noticed that it was starting to get dark, if the window he glanced at wasn't tinted at least, which meant that it was either close to 6 P.M. or 7, not that it mattered. A 'ding' made him look up to see the E.R. light turn off, and the worst fear suddenly filled his mind. Ravenous was dead. His starter Pokemon was dead, and it was only the second day of his journey. He should have trained him until he was at level 16, or even up to 20 just to be extra careful! Why did this have to happen!

The sound of footsteps sent the dark thoughts away, allowing him to see that the Nurse Joy was walking towards him with a small, pitiful smile on her face. The fact it wasn't a frown could mean that Ravenous was alive, or she might be trying to soften the blow by telling him about the Slaking first. Why was she going to play with him, rather than tell him the truth straightforward?

"Reki, your-"

"Please...Just tell me. I can take it." To be honest, he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself with that line. She nodded and took a breath. Here it comes, the horrible news...

"Your Bagon will live, but he will need to stay in a constant healing cycle to put his bones back in place. Normally, being crushed from the sides like that, from boulders if what you told me is correct, would have squished his organs, killing him instantly. The fact that the boulders were not only much larger than your Pokemon, plus the factor that a boulder stopped the other two from fully meeting each other was the only thing that saved its life.

"Your Slaking will be ready by tomorrow, though its nose, hands, and the fingers that were ripped off will be sore for several days, so try to prevent it from doing any fighting or heavy lifting for that time period and it should be okay."

"So...What you're saying is that..." Reki felt the dark thoughts leave his mind, hope replacing them at the news he just heard. The nurse smiled at him and pointed at the E.R. window, which he avoided looking at to the best of his ability during his time in the room, and stood up. Where his Bagon was hours ago now had a single Pokeball in its own personal healing machine, a sight that made him smile for the first time in hours. The door behind him opened, though it was the fact that it sounded as if it was kicked open that made him turn, rather than just it being opened. In front of the nurse and him was the man from before, who looked terrified before their eyes met.

"There you are! I need your help!" The man got on his knees, looking up at him with too many emotions for Reki to note. Just what was wrong with this guy? "That guy from before, the Aqua guy, stole the Devon Goods I was to return to my boss today! You got to help me! My Pokemon are being treated here for the poison they have, and I don't know anyone else who can stop him from escaping!" He sighed, his good mood now ruined thanks to this man's problem, and motioned for him to stand. As soon as he did, Reki placed his right hand on the man's shoulder and nodded.

"But," Reki spoke, forcing the man to pause from whatever he was going to say, "I am going to the woods really quick to train my Pokemon for a moment. If you don't like that, find someone else to do your work."

"N-No problem at all sir. I'll wait here in the lobby."

"Good." He left the Pokecenter soon after that, running to the woods as fast as he could with two goals in mind. The first, to raise Ender's level to 16, in case Aqua, if that was actually the man's name, found the time to get a better Pokemon from someone. The second reason was to find a new member of the team that he could use, since Ember's battles with the wild Pokemon took much longer than any that Ravenous had to deal with, with the exception of Ender's of course. An odd buzzing sound made him recall that his earbuds weren't in his ears, which meant that he wouldn't hear any updates from his Pokedex at the moment.

The source of the sound appeared before him right as he was about to put his headphones back in, revealing a tall, red Pokemon with joy in its eyes, though why it was so happy he couldn't tell, with some black sections under its neck and around its waist. Its arms and legs were thin, contrary to its "hands", which were pincers with a pair of yellow dots that were surrounded by a black circle, and from the knee down its legs were thicker, reminding him of armor. As if it wasn't deadly enough, its toes, or toe to be specific, was a single white talon, though it reminded him of a stinger to be honest, that looked as if it could break bone. Rather than continue for his headphones, he decided to release Ender, focused on this new Pokemon in case it tried to attack him directly as his Swampert reformed.

"SCIZOR!" The red Pokemon shouted, raising its pincers in front of its body, as if getting into a fighting stance. As soon as Ender appeared, it moved, dashing towards them with its pincer closed for a punch.

"Water Gun!" Though the Scizor's attack struck Ender's face, he was able to turn his head and shot the fleeing Pokemon in the back, preventing it from gaining anymore distance between them. Rather than hit the ground like he thought would happen with the use of Water Gun, it crouched down and ran towards them in a flash, landing another hit before the Swampert could reply with any sort of attack. Unlike before, where he would frown and start to hate the troublesome opponent, he grinned.

This was going to be good.

-Author Note-

Hello readers, reviewers, and followers! As usual, I don't own Pokemon or any other sort of references that find their way in this story. So, with that out of the way, welcome back! I felt so horrible for Ravenous during the gym battle, which was mostly my fault for not expecting the Rock Tomb to do such heavy damage to him. Ender took him out with a single Water Gun, which was nice, but did nothing to end my sorrows, knowing that Ravenous would be out until I get to Dewford, considering I need to stop at Petalburg City to make a "scene" before they leave.

On to other things, I was a bit pissed that the Arcanine used Roar as soon as I came across it, seeing as having that would have made me replace it with Ember easily; however, what happened happened and I can't do a single darn thing to change it. I'm currently battling the Scizor as wel speak, so whatever happens you'll find out in the next chapter. Now then, onto the reviews! Wait, sorry, I meant to say REVIEW.

**One-Village-Idiot:** I'm glad that my story intrigued you to try out the randomizer! It certainly is a thrill to play, and I hope that more people start to use it and make stories on here. I would certainly read them without fail for the most part, unless the writing style was bad.

Either way, thank you readers for reading, and until next time, stay golden! Oh, and please drop a review if you please.

-Reki's Team-

Ravenous (Bagon): Level 13, Modest nature. Held item: Leftovers.

Attacks: Rage, Bite, Leer.

-Next-

Ender (Swampert): Level 13, Naughty nature. Held item: None

Attacks: Tackle, Growl, Mud-Slap, Water Gun

-Next-

Ember (Ponyta): Level: 4, Adamant nature. Held item: None

Attacks: Tackle, Growl

-Next-

Slaking (no nickname at the moment): Level: 6, Gentle nature. Held item: None

Attacks: Scratch, Yawn, Encore, Slack Off


	5. Day 2: Part 3

Stella the Scizor became a welcomed addition to the team, being a level 5 Bug/Steel type, as well as someone who really wanted to do anything for him. It was rather confusing to see a Kanto/Johto region specific breed in the woods, and at such a late time as well, but he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, considering how rare the breed was. She didn't really like Ember, but girls tended to get jealous at each other for the little things in life, and they were no different, especially when Stella had one thing over Ember. Which, might he add, may have been the whole reason for the Fire type's jealousy.

Her hands.

Technically they were pincers, but it seemed as if no one cared about that fact except for him. It was also due to her having "hands" that she was the only one in the party that could learn Cut, the HM he picked up earlier today that annoyed the pony, but she was mostly in her Pokeball anyway. He knew he shouldn't do that, but with the way she was acting, as well as how long it took for her to defeat anyone, he was seriously considering the option of letting her go.

At least she leveled up after defeating the Magikarp guy he pointed out earlier. Turned out he considered himself an expert at fishing, but had an Old Rod that only attracted Magikarp to catch.

He focused on training Stella for the next hour or so, not caring for how dark it was starting to get, and soon had the newest member of the team all the way up to level 9 before he left the woods. He went over behind the flower shop, hoping to find another aggressive Pokemon like Ponyta so she could have someone to fight that wouldn't be as dangerous, only to meet face to face with the Arcanine again. Rather than being the center of its attention, it was eating the body of a Gyarados with little to no injury on the Pseudo-Legendary of Kanto itself. It moved its head up to get a good look at him, moving its head to either say something or to Roar, when he backed up with his hands in front of him.

"Don't worry, I got the message. Though, weren't you on Route 116 earlier?" Surprisingly enough, the Arcanine swallowed some of the meat in its mouth before nodding. He was already in the motion of turning around and walking away when it spoke.

_"It spat some kind of crab at me and I spat at it a fireball in return. An eye for an eye, as you humans say."_

"Ah...Good justice then." The Arcanine returned to its meal, allowing Reki to hurry back to town and heal Stella and Ender, as well as talked to the Devon worker a bit before leaving for Route 116 once those two were healed. The man asked him why he would leave now when it was getting dark, only for him to reply that Aqua, or the Team Aqua grunt the man corrected him on, would start to get restless staying in that area with everyone surrounding the area. When asked, he told the worker that one of the trainers he defeated earlier, a Bug Catcher, told him about the tunnel being under construction, and with it being done by hand than by machine due to the Pokemon, the process was going slower.

He was glad that the worker allowed him to leave soon after that, since he hoped to catch the man before he decided to sneak off, and found himself running through the Route as fast as possible. He came across several Slakings, each impatient to either get revenge or to prove their worth by defeating him and his Pokemon, but ended up dying to Ender's Water Gun sending them crashing into a tree. One of the odd things he found along the way was the "crab" that the Arcanine got hit with, which ended up being a Kingler, and caught it out of pity. It tried to put up a fight, but against Stella's steel body it didn't have a chance, so he nicknamed it Kim out of laziness before pressing on.

Stella, due to its typing, nearly lost against a Youngster's Machop who, while weaker than the Bug/Steel type, was a Fighting type Pokemon, giving it a clear advantage over it. After healing her with a Potion, the rest of the trainers, who were hoping for a battle against the Team Aqua thief thanks to the Devon worker shouting for him to return the goods, were easy to beat. He felt bad for defeating a young School Kid with Stella, and the two Hikers were no match for Ender and his Water Gun. He briefly talked to a man wearing a karate uniform, learning about the Team Aqua grunt forcing the man out of the tunnel, as well as confirming that it was actually a dead end before going to the tunnel.

"Please!" An old man wearing a worn suit shouted at him. Why he was standing near the entrance, he didn't have a clue, but he paused and listened to the man anyway. "That man took my precious Peeko! We were just taking a stroll through here, enjoying ourselves like the happy friends we are, when he just grabs his wing and ran into the cave! I would go in myself, but there are Slaking all over the place!" Reki widened his eyes, poking his head into the cave to see that, as horrible and unbelieveable it sounded, the old man was right.

Slaking were laying all over the cold, lifeless tunnel. Most of them were laying on their backs fast asleep, while others were leaning against the wall, trying to get comfortable and take a rest from the looks of it. He looked away from the massive tribe and noticed that the Team Aqua grunt was staring him, holding "Peeko" the Wingull in his left hand, and began to back up into the cave. He dropped something, though that meant that he would have to grab it after defeating him, even if it was the only place the Slaking weren't sleeping at, and took a few steps into the cave.

_"Ouch!"_ Much to his dismay, one of the sleeping Slaking stuck their foot out, bumping in to his, and wakening the ape up from its slumber. He quickly released Stella, whispering a Quick Attack to try and push the Slaking to the clear spot of the cave, and succeeded. The only problem was that the loud "thump" the Slaking's body made when the Siczor slammed its body to the wall woke up another Slaking, one that was particularly close to them, and went after specifically him. He turned to Stella, who was making quick work with the first Slaking, and threw a Pokeball at the newcomer, knowing full well that it would do him no good except stall for a moment.

_"He's dead." _Stella whispered, witnessing the second Slaking escape from its Pokeball and used Quick Attack without him saying a single command. He briefly turned to the grunt, who was looking at him with fear in his eyes and kicked the suitcase behind him, most likely as a way to prevent an easy grab and run to leave him with the Slaking. The Slaking yawned, a trait that meant that Stella would be going to sleep in a few moments if he didn't do anything, and swapped her for Ender, which forced the Slaking to pause its next attack.

"Tackle, but don't slam him into the wall!" He hissed, a first for him, but Ender nodded and rushed to the Slaking, who was too slow to dodge the attack, and was quickly slammed to the ground to the left, an area that was clear of the sleeping Slaking. Reki noted that it wasn't moving, most likely having a rib puncture its heart or something of equal importance, and turned to the grunt with Ender right behind him. He just wanted to go rent a room at the center, take a nice, long shower, and sleep in for a change. Was that truly so bad in this world?

"I-I can't believe this!" The grunt shouted, nearly letting go of the Wingull for some reason. He mentally chanted to whatever Gods existed above, hoping that the grunt would let the damn thing go so at least it could escape to its friend outside, but instead got the grunt taking a step back. He walked closer, only to notice that the man now had a Pokeball in his free hand and brought it forward. "How about w-we make a trade eh?"

"A trade?" He questioned. Just what was the grunt trying to do? He was cornered, and knew that he had two Pokemon on him that would most likely beat anything he had, so why bargain now?

"You have something that belongs to Team Aqua, that S-Swampert there. I'll give you back the Devon goods and this useless Wingull in exchange for giving it back. I'll even give you everything first, promise!" That caused him to pause, taking a glance at Ender, who looked at itself in confusion. What did this man, let alone his organization, want with his Swampert, and what did he mean that it was theirs in the first place?

"You better start explaining, or else I'll have my Swampert here Tackle you into those boulders behind you." Oh yes, use boulders as a torture method when he felt tortured earlier at the sight of Ravenous being crushed by them. External irony right there. Bright as day if he ever saw it. The grunt nodded, his grip on both the Pokeball and the Wingull tight, as if he'll use the bird as a physical shield. A dirty tactic, but it worked when used by criminals.

"Our boss got told of a shipment of rare Pokemon that were being sent to Oldale Town the day before yesterday and sent a few of us to intercept the truck that was delivering the goods, which was heading to Littleroot Town. He told us to i-inject this special formula into the Pokemon to stimulate their growth, hoping that it would not only grow faster, but become stronger too! That Swampert is the Mudkip we injected with the serum, I can tell by the innocent, joyful look in its eyes. T...Those same eyes that looked at the dead bodies of my fellow teammates as if their deaths were nothing but toys to be played with!"

_'That is...Rather creepy to hear if I take into account the fear in the man's eyes.'_ Reki glanced at Ender, who was looking at the man with confusion in his eyes. If the serum, whatever Team Aqua created, was to quickly accelerate the growth of the body and force it to evolve, or at the very least grow faster without as many battles, did that mean it did so without the brain, or did it make subtle changes that didn't change the overall personality of the Mudkip? He knew that he wasn't one for math and any form of complicated science or psychology, as those particular classes never stuck in his head during school, but it was possible for certain medicine and chemicals to completely focus on one issue while leaving the others alone.

In this case, the serum possibly focused all with the physical aspect of Ender, but didn't change its its soul, or at least its thought process. He was about to talk to the grunt when a certain memory replayed itself in his mind.

**_"No, no, no! This isn't possible!" The man took the bag back and looked through it, moving things around relentlessly for several minutes. "These aren't the starter Pokemon I picked up from the Pokecenter! Oh, this will kill my career if anyone ever finds out about this! I have to-"_**

"...So you and your buds were the one who swapped the starters out with those random Pokemon, am I right?" The grunt quickly nodded, nearly hitting his chin against his chest in the process. Was the man that afraid of Ender? Rhetorical question aside, he knew that he couldn't just let the guy go, and he wasn't going to give him Ender, so that only left him one option. "Ender, Water Gun!" The Grunt narrowly avoided the small burst of water, throwing his Pokeball under the stream and released a Poochyena that looked slightly larger than the one he fought before. Did he replace his, or was it possible that he trained for a few hours in this Route, and no one considered him a criminal due to such an innocent act?

"No fair! Tackle that monster to the ground!"

"Water Gun." Since Ender was higher in level than it was before, it was able to reload and use its attack much faster than the Poochyena, which, in simple terms, meant that it was able to use its move before the other Pokemon, sending it towards the boulders, only for it to make a leap of faith to the left and ran into Ender's leg. "Tackle." The poor pup didn't have a chance against the Swampert, nor did it survive against the meeting that happened between the wall and Ender's chest. The grunt lost all of the color in his face, looking straight at him with his lips twitching, as if something was just dying to escape out of his mouth, and ran at him with his fist clenched for a punch.

"I'm sorry, here!" Reki suddenly found himself blinded by bills, faintly hearing the sound of footsteps going the opposite way he was running towards, and turned to see not only the grunt leaving, but the old man walking towards them with a big smile on his face. He turned around the see that Peeko was alive and well, if a bit ruffled, and did nothing to hide the grin on his face when he saw the old man reunited with his precious Pokemon.

"Oh thank you! Thank you young man for helping me regain my best friend! Oh, your name is Reki right?"

"Yes, but how do you know my name?"

"May, this sweet young lass of a girl told me a bit about you and what you wore. I had a ship that can take me anywhere in Hoenn! So, if you ever need a ride, you can find me at my shack out by Petalburg Woods!" Reki did nothing but thank the man as they made it past the sleeping Slakings with ease. He paused, recalling Ender and sent out Stella to pick up the Pokeball that was dropped by the grunt, and was glad to see that it was still untagged. The guy in the karate uniform went into the tunnel as soon as they left it, something that made no sense to him, and the duo walked up to the same path towards Rustboro City.

That was, until they came to a fork in the path.

_'How could I forget about this?'_ The upper path was where he and Ravenous fought against the first Slaking, and the lower path was where the Arcanine claimed as its home. It WAS possible that it simply traveled the general Rustboro area seeing as it ate its meal behind the flower shop, but he personally didn't want to find it and ask. He felt screwed either way, though the upper path should be safer than the lower one, considering the Slaking that was in the tree was gone, right? "I'll take the upper path. Do you want to follow me or go the lower path sir?"

"Hmmmm. I know. I'll let Peeko decide!" Peeko cried out happily before taking the lower path. The old man widened his eyes before running after his friend, shouting out "Wait for me!" in the process. With his choice now made with his mind clear of thoughts, he hurried down the path, hoping to give the Devon worker his goods and go to bed. He nearly made it out without any trouble, such as not a single Pokemon in sight, tripping over some vines, or startling a Pokemon to attack him, but his luck ran out when a single kick to the ground in front of him forced him to stop and look at the interruption.

Though it was short, nearly reaching 3 feet in height, it had a tube-like head with three oversized orange feathers standing straight on top. Its beak was rather small considering its size, and its eyes held an odd blend between curiosity, rage, and MAYBE passion in them, though he was too tired to really know for sure. Back to its physical description, its body was rather simple with its upper body being covered in light orange feathers while everything from the waist down was orange, with the exception of a small patch right where the belly button would have been. Its long arms gave it a further reach, but it was the three sharp, two to three inch talons it had that made him worry about it trying to target him specifically, though the fact that it lashed out with a kick than a punch confused him as well. Speaking of its feet, they were like that of a bird, its upper thighs being plump and protected by feathers, while everything from the knee down were covered in scales like a bird, but with oversized feet with short talons.

_'Why do I have the feeling that this Pokemon isn't going to let me by?'_ He threw a Pokeball at it, hoping to give him time to release Stella and go in for some quick damage, only for the Pokeball, which made contact with the wild Pokemon, cracked without so much of a shake and allowed it to leap directly into Stella's path and scratch her head. It didn't do much damage, but it was something to note that it was fast, seemingly trained its body to respond to the enemy, and pulled out his Pokedex to get a better understanding of it. "Quick Attack!"

Stella charged at the Pokemon before it could properly respond, punching the back of its head to force it downwards. It didn't take this kind of attack kindly though, and responded with a scratch to the throat, which might have killed any other Pokemon except for a Steel type. Stella quickly replied with a Cut, breaking its shoulder blade if the loud "snap" was an indicator, and saw pure, relentless fury spike up in the wild Pokemon's eyes. Not fear or pain, but anger to the point that he thought the ground around it was starting to smolder. The 'ping' of the Pokedex caught his attention, forcing him to look at it and listened to the information given.

**"Combusken, the Young Fowl Pokemon. It lashes out with 10 kicks per second. Its strong fighting instinct compels it to keep up its offensive until the opponent gives up. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Okay, its a Fighting type Pokemon, which was helpful to know at the moment. Stella, though she seemed to know more attacks than the Combusken, still had an elemental disadvantage over the tall chicken. He didn't want a repeat of the Machop incident, and was about to tell her to pull away whe the Combusken's beak began to glow bright red.

_"I'm not done with you!"_ He was expecting some form of Flying attack, such as Peck or some kind of noise-based attack, seeing as how loud it was being. What it did wasn't anything Flying or noise related, but to the next thing that put Stella's life on the line with a single hit.

A fireball.

"Stella!" The fiery ball of death made contact with her chest, making her fall to the ground from the force of the attack, as well as the pain from the super effective move. Though the ball only lasted for about thirty seconds once it made contact, he could already see that it was starting to melt her metallic armor, and instantly swapped her out for Ender. Despite seeing the tall, obviously stronger Pokemon, the Combusken screamed in anger, a smirk on its face, though it was easy to tell it was quite injured.

_"Nothing you can bring out will prevent my victory! I have gone through pain unlike any other and went past my captors to find my place in this cruel world! Nothing can stop me-"_ A blast of water from Ender silenced the bird, sending it flying a few feet away, and somehow managed to survive the attack, despite Ender being at a higher level. He threw the Pokeball, watching as it nearly caught the troublesome Pokemon before it broke the Pokeball, glowing red in anger before sending a fireball at Ender. The Swampert merely chuckled at the sensation, a reaction that had to deal with it being a Water/Ground type he assumed, and proceeded to throw another Pokeball at the opponent, and watched as it broke free from the first try.

"God, why must the ones that fight back be the annoying ones?" Reki mumbled to himself before throwing another Pokeball at the blasted opponent. It tried to avoid the capture device by jumping, but it struck the bare bit of its foot, causing it to be sucked into the device and fell to the ground, shaking for a minute before stopping. He paused, unsure if it was preparing to destroy the Pokeball from the inside or if it was actually captured, and laughed when he realized that two minutes passed by as he waited.

_"Is it over master? I'm so tired..."_ Ender, unlike Ravenous, was one who preferred calling him master than his actual name, using the term as if they were playing castle with him being the king and the Swampert being one of his knights. So, hearing him talk like a tired squire was quite amusing at the moment, even if he would prefer to just sleep for a change.

"Yea, its over Ender. Thanks for helping me out." He recalled the Swampert after returning its friendly, yet surprisingly gentle hug, picking up the Pokeball of his latest catch and scanned it once again. It was a dual elemental, Fire/Fighting, making it a powerhouse in its own way, a good counter for anything that could harm Stella, but couldn't hold a candle to Ender. He was broken from his thoughts by hearing the shouts of the Devon worker, who stood next to the fence border of Route 116, and walked over to him.

"Oh, you're okay! You got the Goods? That is great! I can't thank you enough for this! I know, I'll give you another Great Ball as a reward! And my boss would like to meet you too, so-"

"I want to go to sleep." He interrupted, causing the man to pause mid sentence. He was tired, dirty, and quite frankly wanted to heal his Pokemon and go back to bed. He wasn't trying to impress anyone by getting back some Goods, or to gain favors from some old man. The only reason he did it was so he could get this worker, who was a bad Pokemon trainer in his mind, out of his hair. Which, might he add, randomly had a twig in his hair.

How does one get a twig in their hair?

* * *

Reki, in the end, found himself in front of the corporate head of Devon, who was in fact quite old. His room had many rare stones around him, each being in protective glass cases that did nothing to hinder their beauty. But, in the end, they were nothing but pretty rocks, and he didn't care that much for what the man was saying and fought the urge to pass out in front of him.

"...Oh, you'll really do that for me? You're such a wonderful kid!" Wait, what? He felt his head bob, and the man took it as a nod of approval? Fuck, he wasn't paying attention at all. Something about a letter to an island maybe? "But don't worry! This isn't a free task, which is why I'll give you this Poke-Navigator, or PokeNav for short! Its G.P.S. and built in map will keep you on track, ensuring that you are never lost!" The Devon worker handed it to him, and he realized that he nearly fell down to the ground due to the sudden change in weight. "You don't look too good. Why don't you rest in the spare guest room here at the office for the night? I'll have someone bring you breakfast in the morning, alright?"

"Thank you..." Reki surprisingly managed to say without a yawn, allowing the Devon worker to lead him to the guest room on the top floor. Even with the spectacular view of the city he had, the room was too fancy for him, though he was sure his mom would love to live here if given the chance. The worker didn't stay in the room for long, simply pointing out where things where, what the mini fridge had in it, as well as pointed out the personal healing machine next to the computer, and gladly took the chance to heal his party for the night and limped for the bed.

He knew that he wouldn't have any trouble sleeping tonight.

-Author Note-

Sorry about the lack of size in terms of chapter. I realized that I was going to be quite busy today, and figured I would only finish Day 2 before leaving to start the repairs on the kitchen. I had most of this chapter written last night, but sleep called me to its wonderful comfort around the time that Peeko flew without our favorite sailor of the seas, so there wasn't much to write. I basically wanted to get the bit about Swampert out in the open, considering I love trying to give reasons to odd situations, and the random Pokemon given in the Randomizer are no different. Oh, and as usual, I don't own Pokemon or anything that finds its way into this story. Now, for a quick reply to the review I got for the last chapter.

**TheRoneBone:** Wow, if you ever recall that program, please point it my way so I can try out a small one-shot series featuring the main character against the gym leader's crazy party! Hell, I may even do it from the leader's perspective, possibly doing some silly flashback of how it randomly got under their thumbs or something too. Oh, and thank you for the review. I am always happy to hear that people enjoy it.

And, as usual, thank you readers and followers for reading this story, as it shows the interest people have in this. So, until next time, stay golden, and drop a _review_ on the way out!


	6. Day 3: Part 1

_'That shower I just took felt divine on my skin...'_ Reki thought to himself as he walked out of the bathroom, dressed and ready for the next day of his rather unusual adventure. He hoped that he would be able to get back Ravenous today, seeing as he didn't want to leave without his starter, but recalled what the Nurse Joy said about his condition. A day or two it would take for his injuries to completely heal, a miracle upon itself, and would be called when he was ready to be transferred to him. He was about to go pick up his Pokemon from the personal healing machine when he saw the package and letter on the desk and remembered what he had to do today.

He was assigned to complete two tasks, and in exchange he would get to keep the PokeNav the Devon boss gave him. He had to deliver a letter to some guy name Steven in Dewford, though where he was in the town he didn't know, mostly due to him never going to Dewford before. The second task was much simplier, which was to take the Goods that the Team Aqua grunt tried to steal to some place in the next town past Dewford, though what its name is he didn't know. He glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed.

_'Despite the great shower I took, I still feel like shit. Maybe I need to start having a curfew?'_ Reki scanned his team, noticing no new changes except for the Combusken, who was at level 7, and looked at the "area" function of his Pokedex to see if he could find where this particular breed called their home. When he saw that there was no known locations, he considered the possibility that this Pokemon may have been a genetic bred Pokemon, making it a new breed that no one seen before, but shook his head. If the Pokedex knew what it was, then there was no way it could have been a government only Pokemon. _'Well, staying in this room all day won't solve anything.'_

The way down through the Devon corporation was awkward due to the fact that he had to walk down the stairs, rather than take an elevator, and walked through a room full of scientists talking about various Pokeball technology. There was even a guy talking about fossils and reviving the Pokemon that the fossil had DNA of, but that was just a fancy pipe dream right? He made it outside without any trouble, taking one last look at the building before waking off the property when a loud shout made him pause and turn around.

"I...I'm glad to see I caught you in time." The person was a scientist, one of the few he saw working on his own without a care in the world on the second floor, and pondered what he wanted. He pointed at the PokeNav in his pocket, though how he could tell was something he didn't want to answer. "Could you please hand me your PokeNav for a second? I need to add something to it that I'm sure you'll like." He handed the object to the man, glancing at the guy's hands as the PokeNav was practically torn apart to add a few new components into it. By the time he got his PokeNav back, he could have eaten another round of breakfast if his wanted to, but didn't say anything. "I've installed a Match Call system, so you can call people from all distances of the world if you wanted to!"

_'So...he basically gave me a blackberry cell phone that can make unlimited calls, has a map, apparently has some way to check the "condition" of my Pokemon, and only needs to be charged? Sweet!'_ He was told to call the president of Devon as a test run, who responded happily at the feature working and a joke about the man looking at him from his office window, and hung up soon after. The scientist thanked him for letting him add the feature before watching the man run back to work, allowing him to go to the Pokemart to buy some more supplies, mostly Pokeballs and Potions, before he would leave town for Dewford.

At least, he would have, if he didn't bump into someone.

"Reki, how have you been!?" May asked him with a large, innocent smile. He was going to answer the girl rather truthfully, about the random Pokemon that appeared his way, the Team Aqua grunt he fought, and Ender's situation when his face was met by a Pokedex. "My Pokedex is looking pretty decent you know. I've been catching Pokemon from around the area and in Petalburg Woods until I ran out of Pokeballs. So, do you want to battle and see how you've progressed in terms of training your Pokemon?"

_'Man, for such a sweet looking girl, she reminds me of a tomboy like gym leader Misty.'_ Reki looked around them, noticing how they only had a few kids and what could have been their parents watching them. He didn't want for anyone to get hurt by their battle, but seeing as May wasn't moving from her spot, he figured that it must have been okay for people to battle inside the city limit, and plucked Stella's Pokeball from her lap. "You know, for someone who said that they've been catching Pokemon until they ran out of Pokeballs, you don't seem to have that many Pokemon on you."

"Shu-Shut up!" May blushed and shook her head, grabbing a Pokeball out of her pouch in the process. She turned back to him and motioned at the Pokemon Center, meaning that the rest of her team was healing. Either that, or she was making an excuse and only caught a single Pokemon. "Go Torkoal!" May's choice of Pokemon reminded him of a tortoise, though its skin was red rather than a patchy green or brown, its shell was charcoal black with four holes that glowed bright red, and a small, fifth hole in between them that released smoke. It was easy to tell that the Pokemon was some type of Fire type, so he considered swapping Stella for Ender, but he remembered that him suddenly getting a Swampert would raise too many questions from the young girl, especially when she had the basic evolution of that Pokemon that she got from her father.

"Come on out Stella, Quick Attack!" Reki didn't know which was better, the fact that his Scizor was a blur that sent the Torkoal on its shell, the damage it seemed to give it, or May's reaction at the bright red blur that nearly sent her Pokemon to the moon. May already had her Pokedex out, when she brought it out he didn't have a clue, but the way her eyes stared at Stella meant trouble and confusion.

"I don't know where you got an unknown Pokemon, but that won't hold me back! Smokescreen Torkoal!" A thick, disgusting cloud of black smoke suddenly spilled from the Pokemon's back, obscuring his vision from seeing Stella. He tried his best to not breathe in the unhealthy cloud, but focused more on trying to find his Pokemon before May could issue out another command to the Fire type.

"Quick Attack to get out of the smoke!"

"Smog before it can escape the cloud!" Torkoal made an odd sound, but he was happy to see his Scizor dash out of the cloud before it changed into a sickly purple shade. At this point Reki didn't know what exactly he could do to bring May's Pokemon out of its protective cloud, seeing as it would take time for the cloud to dissipate, but by that time she could heal the Fire type of any injuries Stella gave it. He looked down at his Pokebelt, looking at Ender's ball as a crazy yet cruel tactical plan formed in his mind.

_'If I time this right, then May will never see Ender, and I can get him to knock that Torkoal out in one shot. I hope this works...'_ He pointed Stella's Pokeball at her, who nodded and allowed for him to swap her and brought out Ender.

"If you're not going to do anything, then I will! Ember Torkoal!"

_'Is she nuts? She has no way of seeing anything past her side of the cloud, right?'_ He noticed a faint glow of red through the clouds and waited for the Fire Pokemon to release its attack. A small fireball shot out the cloud, the perfect moment for him to act. "Water Gun, full power where the glow is!" The attack hit Ender's stomach, though the Swampert showed no reaction of pain as a full stream of water shot into the cloud, an action which rewarded him with the Torkoal's scream.

"Torkoal!" Reki quickly swapped Ender out for Stella, smiling as the troublesome cloud was blown away moments after the swap, revealing May using a Potion to heal her Pokemon. She looked up at him with an accusing glare on her face, one that he knew had questions that wanted answers. "Where is the Pokemon you used that attack on?!" Yep, there it is.

"I swapped them out for the attack, and then swapped them again."

"That's cheating!"

"No it isn't." Reki shook his head. "We never specified any other rules in this little match, so I am well within my rights to swap them out, even if you couldn't see _which_ Pokemon I brought out." Even with the Potion, May's Pokemon looked as if it would be out for this match, which meant that he would only have to deal with one more Pokemon from her. She held the glare on her face for a minute or so, during which time the Torkoal looked no better than when she healed it, before she sighed and recalled the Fire type.

"Go Mudkip!"

_'Has that thing gotten bigger?'_ It looked as if it gained some meat on its bones, looking around with an adventurer's gleam in its eyes, something that he respected in an individual. It looked at Stella with confusion on its little face, most likely from never seeing such a Pokemon before, and opened its mouth a little.

"Mud-Slap Mudkip!"

"Quick Attack." It wasn't hard to predict which attack would meet first, seeing as Stella actually had long, humanoid legs that gave her a clear advantage over the Water type. It did; however, get its attack to hit Stella's face, forcing her to pull away and start wiping her eyes with her pincers, which was pretty unsuccessful.

"That's the way to do it Mudkip! Now use Water Gun!"

"Quick Attack to get away from the attack!" Stella made it about half a foot from her starting position before having to stop to wipe her eyes again. This was all the opportunity the little Water type needed to launch its attack without fail, making the Bug/Steel type fall to the ground in the process, creating a chain reaction of May cheering her Pokemon on. As much as he should have been concerned, he figured that getting shot with a blast of water should help clear the mud from her eyes, which would mean that she won't miss again. In theory at least, only in theory. "Cut."

"W-What? What was that?" Stella dashed towards the Mudkip with both pincers taking a bright white glow that intensified the predatory look the yellow circles that were on them had. The right claw struck gold, cutting the Water type's cheek and sent it flying due to the force behind the strike, though May now had a frightened look that seemed focused only on the second pincer.

"Growl!" May's Pokemon surprisingly had enough energy, or was it pain tolerance, to let lose its loud, annoying noise that he remembered the little bugger by, and nodded his head.

"Again." This time, the Mudkip wasn't launched away, but was forced to the ground with the pincer right below its throat, as if it was going to make it bleed to death. Fortunately for him, as well as for all the little kids that he suddenly realized were watching this battle with interest, May decided to forfeit the match, earning them cheers from the viewers around them. There were even a few people calling out to May for how well she performed in the match, and that seemed to make the girl smile despite her loss and how close to death her starter was.

Well, he assumed it was her starter, but since she helped her father do research for who knows how long, he was sure that there was a strong possibility that she had other Pokemon he didn't know about.

"Reki..." The brunette walked over to him, handing him several bills, nine of them if he counted correctly on eye sight alone, and slowly took them from her. She turned around, facing the Pokemon Center and took a step, a sign he figured meant that she had nothing else to say or do for him, and began walking away. "Oh, by the way, I passed Mr. Briney in Petalburg Woods, and he mentioned you! If you want to see him, you should visit his cottage by the sea outside of the woods! He is known as one of the best seafarer in Hoenn!" Reki briefly recalled a personal ship that was anchored by the dock to this random shack, and kept on walking, waving his hand above his head.

_'Whether she saw it or not isn't my problem.'_ He told himself before hurrying to the woods, taking a moment to think if he was forgetting anything at the moment. He found himself drawing a blank from his mind and stopped thinking about it. If there was nothing, then he was just wasting time to properly introduce himself to the Combusken, as well as see how useful it was in battle. _'I mean, what could go wrong with meeting a captured Pokemon?'_

* * *

Apparently, a lot could go wrong with trying to see what kind of attitude a Combusken freshly caught from the wild would have. He didn't understand as to WHY there were Water type Pokemon crawling through the woods, but it was very difficult for his new Pokemon, who he named Kakarot due to how difficult he was being like those pesky characters from that anime, to use his Fire attack to kill them. Sure, some of the random Pokemon that appeared, such as Krabby, were weak enough for a Scratch or two to put it out of its misery, but when a Seadra somehow pops out and uses Water Gun without missing, well, he was sure that he would have to take another Pokemon back to the center for a few days of healing.

Luckily, Kakarot survived long enough for Reki to swap him out for Stella, who took the forefront of most of the wild Pokemon until they reached Petalburg City. He healed the Fire/Fighting type with a Potion in case they came across a Pokemon he was sure the Combusken could handle, such as the random Cascoon and the Sentret in the area. Seeing as he didn't catch anything from the woods, the only thing he bought from the Pokemart in Petalburg were a few Potions to replace the ones he had to use on Kakarot. It was surprising to see that the little training that was done with his newest Pokemon raised him up to level 8, but seeing at how dedicated it was to fighting and showing it was the best, its rise in level may have been due to it pushing itself past its limits by fighting against himself, despite how unlikely it sounded.

Ember, the little Ponyta he had, fought a few Sentret outside of Petalburg City as well, pushing its way to level 8 as well, despite him having a feeling that such a little gain in strength wasn't going to make her more useful to him. Ender currently was the strongest between his team, being at 15 thanks to the shared defeat of Torkoal between him and Stella, followed by Stella, and Ember.

_'I hope that Ravenous won't get mad if he becomes the lowest leveled member of my team. I'll ensure that he gets plenty of training to help him grow, even if it means staying in a single town for a month or two!'_ A familiar cry made Reki look north. To be more specific, a little shack that had a ferry anchored next to a dock, and remembered what May said about Mr. Briney. If anyone could get him to Dewford, it would be him! A quick walk over to the shack, as well as a fast battle between Ember and a Wurmple later, and Reki found himself watching Mr. Briney chasing after Peeko around their table, but for what reason he couldn't tell.

"Ahoy there Reki! Want to play with Peeko a bit?"

"Uh, no thanks Mr. Briney. I can't catch a Flying type with my hands like you, and all of my Pokemon won't be good playmates for your friend. I...actually came here needing a bit of help getting to Dewford." Mr. Briney didn't react, neither showing any sign of hearing him or any opinion about his request, causing him to think he may have said something wrong. When he was about to repeat his request, Peeko landed on its owner's shoulder and squaked louder than before, earning a grin from the old man.

"Its time for us to stretch our sea legs Peeko!" The two ran out of the shack, allowing Reki to blink at the sudden madness he was sure was going to meet him head on, and left the building as well, locking the door on the way out. The ferry itself looked in tip-top shape, no cracks or any flimsy wood to step on, so the ship had to be in working order, right?

As soon as he stepped on the boat, he realized that if they EVER made a Need for Speed: Boat edition, Mr. Briney would be on the cover with a grin to match the Mad Hatter and Peeko flying with the speeding boat of death. Was that thing at level 100 or something? He did note that only two things caused Mr. Briney to slow down his boat, three if he counted the fact that he had to turn several times to get to Dewford Town. The first was that his father called, saying how he was proud of him starting to collect badges and how he got his PokeNav number from Roxanne. The second fact was that there were several swimmers, well, swimming in the path of the ferry, and that in itself forced the old man to either anchor so they could swim away, or make a short U-turn to get around them.

There was even this one particular swimmer who was going in a complete circle in the water, but they didn't need to worry about him.

Dewford Town was more of an island than an actual town, with a Pokemon Center to heal Pokemon and provide a room to sleep in, a few houses to the residents who lived there, a "trend house" to talk about the latest trend, and an official Pokemon gym like the one in Rustboro City. As he got off Mr. Briney's boat and glanced at everyone, he noticed something that made him worry more than it should have.

"Mr. Briney."

"Yes Reki?"

"Where is the Pokemart?" The man stayed quiet for a moment, an act that he did not more than an hour ago at his shack, when the old man laughed.

"What do you mean 'Where is the Pokemart' lad? There are no Pokemarts in Dewford!" Though the happy tone in the old man's voice should have been a funny moment, the harsh realization hit Reki like a ton of bricks. No Pokemart meant no Potions or Pokeballs to buy. No Pokemart meant that he would have to return to the Pokemon Center EVERY TIME he wanted to heal his Pokemon during his time here on the island. It also meant that if any of his Pokemon fainted due to them losing all of their health, there was a much higher chance of them dying, rather than them being able to be saved.

Things just got more serious in Dewford Town for Reki, that was for sure.

-Author Note-

Hello one and all! Now we're starting with the third day of Reki's journey, and already things are looking to be quite sour for him. Sure, he got some free tech and beat May in a quick battle, but not only is he in a place with no Pokemart, but half of his team are too weak to be of much use for him in battle. Will Reki lose another of his Pokemon to the Pokemon Center, or will he truly feel the loss of a partner in the cave that he will have to venture off to for Steven? Only time, and a quick playthrough, will tell!

Now that I got my little tease out, I'm a bit saddened at not having a bit of time to play the game like I wanted to, but I had a rather busy day yesterday, and I kept on thinking about the Pokedex, seeing as it gives you information about any of the random Pokemon, but it doesn't show the capture in the original dex, nor does it show the "area" of their location. Sure, the location is to be expected, but without the Pokedex being changed to its National dex, it caused me to wonder if I should go back to edit the previous chapters to wipe out the Pokedex entries of all non-Hoenn/Emerald dex list Pokemon, seeing as Pokemon like Scizor don't naturally appear in the wild.

Another small bit was how quick Mr. Briney gets you to Dewford. I didn't want to say that Reki got there in less than a minute, so I made it an hour in terms of Mr. Briney crazy madness driving time. Seriously, for someone who is reknown as a talented captain, he drives like a thrill junky. Now then, for the reviews!

**Adin Terim:** I am quite pleased to hear that you enjoyed the chapter, especially with how each Pokemon that isn't spammed appears for their piece of him. As for the "tired" aspect, I kinda wanted to see how I would feel being in his shoes, at least to a certain extent, being tired to the point of making reckless decisions and agreeing to whatever would allow me to sleep quicker. Also, thank you for pointing out that program to me, as I'll see about using it in a future project!

**TheRoneBone:** Thank you for the link and for your support of this story! I'm sure I'll be quite busy testing out the programs and roms with what I've been given, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter as well.

To all the other readers out there, thank you for taking the time to read this story. So, without much more to say, until next time everyone, stay golden, and please drop a review on the way out! Hopefully a chapter will be out within the next several hours, possibly a day or two max. Valentines' Day is coming up, so the horrors of that Holiday are upon us!


	7. Day 3: Part 2

"Hello, you're new around here right?" A young boy, no older than seven, asked Reki as he stepped off the docks. Obvious answer aside, he nodded, allowing the boy to continue talking. "Great, I was wondering what the latest trendy saying is outside of Dewford is! I mean, it has to be Believe It, right? Believe It is just so great! It explains everything about life and how to live it, you know?"

"No...I don't."

"YOU DON'T!" If he ever had children, he would make sure that none of them ever became as loud as this little kid, that was for sure. If they were ever this loud, they'd receive a hit to the back of the head or a Water Gun to the face for being so disruptive. "Well, then what is the trendy saying of life outside of Dewford Town then sir?" Should he give the kid a serious answer? It wasn't as if he owed the little one anything, considering how loud he was, and he had a feeling that he was going to be on the island for a day, possibly two if things took a turn for the worst, so did he really want people to remember him?"

"...Challenge Accepted."

"Huh?"

Well, if he was going to be here for a day or two, he might as well have some fun messing with the locals, right? "The most trendy, popular phrase out on the main land is Challenge Accepted. Got it?" The kid, don't ask him how, but was not only managing to write down the phrase with a piece of paper and pencil, but was doing it without breaking the paper, seeing as he had nothing hard to write on. If he was able to do that as a kid, it would make writing kick me signs a lot easier than it was in the past.

"Challenge Accept." No, it was Challenge Accepted. Get it right kid. "I get what you're saying. That is cool! It's alive, fresh, and I can see everything in it! I have to tell everyone!" The kid ran into the building with the annoying sign called Dewford Hall, though he would stick to the Trendy House nickname Mr. Briney pointed it out to him as, and went south towards the gym he saw on the way over. The outside of the gym looked the same as the one in Rustboro, meaning it reminded him more of a warehouse than an actual place of training Pokemon, but it was the inside that mattered right?

"...Its dark." Maybe this gym was still under construction? He took a few steps forward, looking around the walls that seemed too thick to be normal, as if it would only allow two, maybe three people to walk through the halls at the same time, and the fact that there only seemed to be one light on bothered him. It was when he noticed a gym assistant wearing a green uniform ahead of him did he realize that there wasn't one light on, but that the light was following him, as if to give him guidance in the darkness.

"Hey, champ in the making!" Why was this guy calling him a champ? He wasn't applying for the Pokemon League, nor was he ever going to try and become a gym leader in the first place. So why call him champ? "This is the Dewford gym." No kidding? I thought it was a warehouse turned gym. "Brawly commands Fighting type Pokemon, so don't send out any Normal types or else they'll be meeting some serious trouble! Also, the gym is as dark as the bottom of the ocean, but beating the trainers within will brighten the road to victory!"

"...No way. Later."

"Wha-Wait!" Reki didn't wait for the assistant to try and convince him. Instead, he left and decided to head northwest, where he saw an odd cave that must have held the location of the Devon boss's son, Steven. He recalled the man saying how he and his son liked rare stones, and where else to find rare stones than a cave on the edge of town, right?

The two Fisherman that were on the northern sandy shores of Dewford Town, or Route 106 if you had to get technical, were rather easy to defeat. Sure, the first guy had a Tentacool, but Stella had no issues beating the overgrown jellyfish, and he was even able to use Kakarot against the second fisherman, though he swapped out the angry bird when the man, Elliot he believed the man introduced him as after they exchanged PokeNav numbers, brought out a Tentacool as his second Pokemon. The battle itself wasn't enough to raise the Combusken to the next level, but the Pokemon was rather close, and would become one of the two main Pokemon he would use against Brawly's gym, the second being Ender.

Granite Cave, which ended up being the name of the cave itself, had an unusual funky scent to it as he entered the cave. There was a Hiker near the entrance, wearing more than enough equipment to run a small shop like a traveling market, but this one was different. Not only did he seem uninterested in battle, he seemed dressed and ready to control Pokemon, rather than explore the cave or even climb the outside of it. By the time the two came into contact with one another, Reki was sure that something was wrong either with the Hiker, the cave, or both.

"Excuse me, but you're not supposed to be in here."

"I have a job to find a Mr. Stone. Tall, silver hair. Ring any bells?" He wasn't sure if he was describing the old man's son right, but he figured saying that he had a job to find someone in here was better than just saying 'I'm going to explore in hopes that a random guy I don't even know is here' after all.

"Oh, you're here for Mr. Stone?" Reki hid his surprise well and nodded. He was now closer to finishing half of the goal given to him by that company head, and he would be free of his influence soon! A celebration was in order! "If that is the case, then I need to give you this." The man handed him an HM disc, not that it wasn't a nice gift or anything, but it was odd to be given such a random thing.

"Not that I don't mind, but why?"

"I take it you're new." Rude assumption aside, even if it was correct, the Hiker continued on. "The lower levels of the Granite Cave are too dark for the visual eye to see, so it is required for Flash to be taught to a Pokemon so you can see clearly, or at least more than the palm of your hand. In order to USE Flash, you must beat Brawly, the gym leader of Dewford, so I suggest leveling up your Pokemon on this floor before going off to fight him."

_'Great.'_ Reki accepted the disc and thanked the man for his aid before walking further into the cave until he couldn't see the man anymore. Just when he thought that he would be done with the whole gym leader business, he finds out that he would have to defeat another one in order to use the damn move that would help him find his target. It was as if the world was against him or something.

"Whee...zing..." The unfamiliar Pokemon cry reminded him that he had his ear buds hooked around the collar of his shirt, preventing him from hearing what the wild Pokemon were saying. He quickly corrected that mistake, pausing to see if the unknown Pokemon would talk again, or at least give its location away so he could scan it. _"I'm so...Bored."_

_'That was behind this boulder on the ground.'_ Reki turned to the left, noticing a rather odd dark purple boulder that seemed to release a pale yellow mist from it. A wave of pleasant scents struck him, reminding him of his mother's bathroom at their old house due to the different perfumes she had in stock, and looked down at the odd boulder. At first, he thought that there were two boulders right next to one another, seeing as the second boulder was much smaller, and seemed to be attached in the middle of the large boulder. His idea was proven wrong when he suddenly found himself being stared at by two sets of bored, sleepish eyes, and took a step backwards as the boulders release a burst of yellow mist to float to his eye level.

_"You...Aren't a scientist like the others...Are you boy?"_ Reki slowly shook his head, a hand on Stella's Pokeball in case things went south real quick. The Pokemon's eyes suddenly showed joy, for what reason he didn't know, and soon found it hovering rather close to his face, its four eyes looking at him with the same, unified expression like a pair of twins. _"Good, then you can...take me away from here once and for all."_

"Why?" Reki had to ask. If a Pokemon wasn't in its natural habitat, he didn't care about that, but for some scientist to perform experiments on one was something different. The Pokemon spun for a bit, releasing more yellow mist in the process. Was that lilac he smelled?

_"They are doing something to me...Changing my gas so they smell sweet and of flowery fields than the horrid stench they should be! I need to escape this prison, screw my brothers!"_ Brothers? So, not only were there more of this Pokemon in this cave, but someone was changing their "horrid" stench into something tolerable? He pulled out his Pokedex and scanned the Pokemon, hoping that it would have the answers he would need to at least remove any confusion from the situation.

**"Weezing, the Poison Gas Pokemon. By diluting its toxic gases with a special process, the highest grade of perfume can be extracted. To Weezing, gases emanating from garbage are the ultimate feast. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Okay, so they were marketing perfume from this breed. That in itself wasn't bad or anything, but the question was why was someone taking the time to extract the gas from the Weezing for profit?

"What do you remember before being sent here? Maybe that will help me paint a better picture." Reki found the Weezing looking at him in confusion. Maybe it didn't understand quotes or phrases? "I just want to see why these scientists are doing this to you and the others."

_"Ahhh...I was once owned by a man in black...He was proud of his symbol, a large red R upon his left shoulder, and my brothers came from the same place, either as Weezing or Koffing, due to this man wanting to start anew. He...sold us to this place..."_

"Oh. I'll catch you then, but I need to weaken you up, okay?" Once he saw Weezing spin its body vertically (he assumed that was its way of saying yes), he released Kakarot and had him "fight" the Pokemon. "Oh, and could you show off a few of your attacks as well? I need to see what I will be working with in the near future." Tackle seemed to be its main attack, which was a common staple amongst the Pokemon kingdom, but he wasn't surprised to see Smog and Poison Gas, Poison type attacks that had a decent chance to poison an enemy depending on how potent the fog was during the use. It knew one final move, Selfdestruct, but it only used it as a last resort, as it had a very high chance of killing itself in the blast of its own attack, an attack that would be forgotten as soon as Weezing was able to learn a new move.

_"Is this all you got ya stinking purple balloon?"_ Kakarot taunted, taking another martial arts pose before going in for a Scratch attack. It struck the Weezing, making its eyes widen before spewing a dark mist directly to the Combusken's face. Reki couldn't hide his amusement, even if he wanted to, at the sight of Kakarot rolling on the ground, complaining about the horrid taste of rotten fish and stale salad taking root in his taste buds, and proceeded to catch the Weezing. He glanced at his Pokemon, who seemed to look a bit weaker than usual, which was confusing to separate at the moment, and pulled out a Pecha berry and a Potion to heal the Fire/Fighting type before picking up their newest companion.

"You good to go?" The bird nodded, though glaring at him before standing up and performing a few stretches to "warm up". To be honest, he thought that the Combusken was testing his wounds to see if he could actually fight well enough for the next wild Pokemon. A loud "thunp" that caused several rocks to break from the surrounding stalagmites caught their attention, seeing as something with that much force would be something either strong, reckless, or a combination of the two, which was NEVER good.

_"I'll defeat this new enemy with only Scratch!"_ The gutsy Pokemon ran off before Reki could command it to stop, forcing him to follow after it with a frown on his face. He didn't have a long jog to catch up. In fact, he could have walked if he honestly wanted to, as the Pokemon that was causing all of the "thumps" slammed into the Fire/Fighting type, sending it into a ledge. The new Pokemon was shaped like a U.F.O., looking at him with two soulless red eyes that made its hovering looked even more alien than the Pokemon was already. Its two arms reminded him of stainless steel claws due to each limb having three claws, and it also had spikes around its "head", though he was unsure if its head was also its body or not. A quick scan of the Pokedex told him all that he needed to know about this headbutting oddity of a Pokemon.

**"Metang, the Iron Claw Pokemon. The claws tipping its arms pack the destructive power to tear through thick iron sheets as if they were silk. It flies at over 60 miles per hour. Level: Unknown. Attacks: Unknown."** Despite how odd it was acting, a powerhouse of a Pokemon like that, who could not only destroy iron sheets with ease, but could fly to save him time from walking, was worth battling to pick it up. Kakarot was already on its feet, running towards the Pokemon with its long claws ready to try and rip open the Metang's metal flesh, which Reki knew was quite unlikely to happen.

_"Feel my attack you-Ugh!"_ Not only did the attack do little to no damage, as he expected, but the Metang proceeded to slam itself into the Combusken, forcing it flying back into the ledge of the cave again. His Pokemon managed to dodge the next attack, allowing the Fire/Fighting type to try yet another Scratch, only for it to do next to nothing on the Metang.

"Kakarot, stop it! I'm switching you out!"

_"You. Will. Not!"_ Kakarot's beak glowed bright red, the warning sign of an Ember attack, and launched it before Reki had the chance to recall him into the Pokeball. The attack struck with no worry, causing the Metang to pause mid-flight, and stayed in place as a eerie, metallic screech echoed around them, signaling that the odd Pokemon was hurt for the very first time. It was then that Reki nearly slapped himself at his stupidity. Metang had part of the word metal in it, and it was also known as the Iron Claw Pokemon, meaning that it had to be a Steel type, which was quite weak to Fire type attacks. Kakarot released another Ember, which Reki didn't consider stopping the attack due to his interest in the Steel type Pokemon, and watched as the attack not only struck home, but caused most of its body to melt away, forcing it to flee before it could die a horrid death.

_'So, I may have another chance to catch it then? That...is actually rather comforting.'_ As if to make his mood lift even higher, not only did Kakarot level up, but he saw a few Weezing that were coming towards him that didn't seem too pleased about the ruckus the two were causing in the cave. He glanced at his Pokemon, who looked rather cocky at the oncoming Pokemon with its beak glowing bright red at the sight, its arms extended to the side as if to prepare a dual Scratch attack, though the chance of that working was unlikely. "Well...Lets heat the place up, shall we?"

* * *

The Weezing that came towards them were jealous due to the fact that he picked one of the Hasty natured Weezing over them, who were kind or patient natured, not that it really mattered to him. He didn't have a need for a second Weezing at the moment, and wasn't going to stress himself over catching a ton of Pokemon that he didn't really need at the moment. Each Weezing that came towards them helped out in raising Kakarot's level to 13, including a second encounter with the Metang. He tried to catch the Steel type of destruction, knowing full well that they were a power house of their own height, but nothing, not even the two Great Balls he got from the Devon Worker, would catch the damn thing! He stopped before he got too low in Pokeballs, and left the cave to heal Kakarot.

"So, I'm back to fighting yet another gym in order to use an HM, huh?" Reki opened the gym doors, walking into the lonely darkness and kept forward, not even giving the gym assistant the time of day for a quick chat. He quickly found himself at a fork in the gym, unsure if he should go left or right in order to reach the gym leader. He was slowly beating himself up for not asking about bringing a flashlight into the gym, but he didn't want it to get taken away, or worse, destroyed without compensation, and flipped a coin. Heads was left, and tails was right.

Flip!

"Right it is..." He put the coin back in his pocket before taking the left, hoping that luck would lead him to the correct path without meeting any trainers. Maybe if he just went completely right he would find a wall to hit?

"Hey, you stepped on my foot while I was practicing my katas!"

_'Dammit.'_ The girl released a small, blue and gray Pokemon whose head made up most of its entire body, though it looked like a Hindu god, if he spoke it right or not he didn't know, but she released the Pokemon and waited on him to bring out his. He grinned and brought out Kakarot, who was grinning with anticipation for the battle. They were both of the same level, so it all depended on who ordered the first attack to get the main lead in the battle.

"Detect!"

"Ember!"

Unfortunately for them, the fighter girl's Pokemon managed to act first, doing a flip to dodge the fireball, and stood with its little arms stretched for either a punch or a cartwheel. Kakarot released another Ember, one that was smaller in size he noticed, and watched as the Fire/Fighting type ran towards the small Pokemon.

"Detect again!" The small Pokemon dodged the fireball by a cartwheel, though it wasn't fast enough to avoid a claw to the face, forcing the small thing to jump away from Kakarot. "Confusion Meditite!"

_'At least I know what that thing is now.'_ "Ember before it can use its attack!" Luck was on his side, he noted, as the fireball struck the Meditie with enough heat to burn most of its body. It fell to the floor, its head looking straight at Kakarot, and he noticed that the Pokemon's eyes were glowing unusually bright.

_"Feel my pain!"_ Meditite screamed out, causing him to turn to Kakarot, who suddenly found himself being thrown at the wall. Despite the loud grunt his Pokemon let out, he was unsure if the small crunch that followed it was due to the wall breaking or a bone inside the Combusken. Either way, he was happy to see the girl's Pokemon unconscious, most likely due to the burns it had, and hurried over to Kakarot to pull him out of the wall. His Pokemon was conscious, thank the random God of the day, and he noticed that its left shoulder was popped out of place, possibly lower than it should have been, but it was possible that Kakarot was keeping it low so the pain wouldn't be as bad.

"It's okay Kakarot. Just let me grab a Potion and..." His voice left him as he witnessed Kakarot grab his arm by the lower shoulder and popped it back into place with a harsh glare on his Pokemon's face. The arm had a slight spasm, as if to realign the nerves back into place, before the Fire/Fighting type moved it in a circle to see if any further pain came from the arm.

_"A little pop won't keep me, Kakarot of the Chosen, down!"_

Why did he have to have all of the psychotic Pokemon on his team?

-Author Note-

Good evening readers, reviewers, and followers! I welcome you to the end of the latest chapter, and as usual, I don't own Pokemon or any other references in any way, shape, or form. With that out of the way, I do apologize for the late update. Not only have I been putting my time into writing other chapters evenly, but I had to play the game up to a certain point (Still in Dewford) to see which reactions and the like I should write about. One particular random Pokemon breed gave me an idea for Dewford itself, which will most likely be shown in the next chapter, given that I make it a long chapter dealing with the gym battle and the hunt for Steven. Now then, to the review!

**Adin Terim:** I am quite happy to see yet one more of your reviews! I did actually forget to buy a few things from Petalburg, but the items in question weren't really necessary to take a trip back. The option of going back will show up next chapter, and I see no need to be any sort of jealous of the updating speed of this story.

To the readers of this story, thank you for showing interest in this! Until next time everyone, stay golden, and please drop a review on the way out!

-Granite Cave-

Floor 1: Weezing, Metang


End file.
